Abstract:
Climate change will cause further loss of biodiversity. As negative effects are
already taking place, adaptive measures are required to protect biodiversity
from the effects of climate change. The EU policy on climate change and
biodiversity aims at improving a coherent ecological network in order to have
more resilient ecosystems and to provide for connectivity outside core areas.
The existing legal framework, the Birds and Habitats Directives, can enable
adaptive approaches, by establishing and managing the Natura 2000 network and
providing for connectivity measures. However, policy and law so far have mainly
been aimed at conserving the status quo of habitats and species within core
areas. The question is whether a legal requirement to protect certain species in
certain places makes sense when species and even ecosystems are migrating due to
climate change. Instead, efforts must be increased to protect ecosystem
functions, goods and services from the negative effects of climate change, and
to facilitate the ecological restoration of new areas. Even more effort is
needed for the implementation of connectivity. If existing legislation proves
too weak to face these challenges, a new ‘Ecosystem Framework Directive’ might
provide the necessary legal impe
