Biodiversity loss is one of the biggest ecological problems Europe is facing today. European Environment Agency (EEA) executive director Jacqueline McGlade said that if biodiversity loss went on unchecked, the resulting disaster would be "on a par with the current financial crisis". Biodiversity loss is huge problem that many people aren't even aware of, unlike economies that are more than aware of how much is this problem costing them year after year.It has to be said that there were certain improvements in biodiversity protection by many EU states but this efforts are not even close to that what is needed to halt current biodiversity loss. What Europe really needs is new biodiversity strategy and joined efforts because current data shows that EU will almost certainly miss its target to halt biodiversity loss by 2010.
Why is biodiversity loss such a serious problem? McGlade said that "unless the continued decline of European eco-systems is halted, biodiversity loss will have an adverse impact on food and water supplies, as well as other eco-system services, resulting in a potentially catastrophic blow to the economy. This is really what nature is all about, namely the perfect balance of all living creatures where every single piece (no matter how small it is) is needed to create perfectly functional puzzle of life. With so many ecosystems being destroyed, not only in Europe but in the rest of the world as well, our planet is losing this balance, resulting in numbers of different other problems that even threat our survival.
So how to halt this tremendous biodiversity loss? EU has introduced new system called "eco-system accounting". The basic idea of this new system is that governments and businesses should include biodiversity loss on balance sheets. There has to be more protected areas across Europe, especially in areas rich with wildlife. Preserving biodiversity will be especially difficult given the climate change problem that requires quick adaption of many species. The species not able to adapt are likely to go extinct, and we need to do anything in our power to ease this adaptation process as much as possible. By halting biodiversity loss we are not only helping different species to survive, we are helping ourselves as well.
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