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BiodiversityThe EU is committed to halting biodiversity loss in Europe and significantly reducing the rate of loss worldwideA contraction of biological diversity, biodiversity reflects the number, variety and variability of living organisms, including mankind. The world is faced with an unprecedented loss of biodiversity, which threatens to undermine environmental, economic and social goals. The framework for worldwide action is the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity of 1992. At the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, at Johannesburg in 2002, governments committed themselves to significantly reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. The European Union has been legislating and taking action since the 1970s to safeguard biodiversity, and has also taken an active role on the international scene. The EU has also set itself the objective of halting the loss of biodiversity on its own territory by 2010. The United Nations define biodiversity as the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part. It includes diversity within species (genetic diversity), between species (species diversity), and between ecosystems (ecosystem diversity). It provides mankind with a wide range of benefits, such as important goods (like timber and medicinal products) and essential services (like carbon cycling and storage, clean water, climate and natural hazards mitigation). Human activity has caused between 50 and 1000 times more extinctions in the last 100 years than would have happened due to natural processes. This rate of loss is projected to accelerate 10-fold by 2050. The UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report, released in January 2006, confirms that many animal and plant populations have declined in numbers, geographical spread, or both. For instance, a quarter of mammal species are currently threatened by extinction. Increasingly, the same species are found at different locations on the planet and the overall biodiversity is decreasing, because some rare species are lost and common ones spread to new areas. Overall, the range of genetic differences within species has declined, particularly for crops and livestock. The main causes of biodiversity loss are changes in natural habitats due to intensive agricultural production systems, construction and extractive industries, over exploitation of forests, oceans, rivers, lakes and soils, invasions of alien species, pollution and global climate change. The global scale of the biodiversity issue demands concerted international action. The framework for this action is the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, which was signed in 1992 and which the European Union ratified in 1993. Its objectives are the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of genetic resources. The EU has been legislating on biodiversity since the 1970s. It is a driving force on the world scene and it is committed to implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity. In 1998, it adopted a biodiversity strategy. Four biodiversity action plans were adopted under this strategy in 2001, on conservation of natural resources, agriculture, fisheries and economic and development cooperation. Today, nature and biodiversity are one of the priorities of the EU's sixth environment action programme 2002-12. Further information:
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