Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Management in Europe & CIS

Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Land Management

Main challenges in the Region

Europe and CIS region experienced an increased habitat destruction and fragmentation and over-exploitation of natural resources following entry into the market economy, land redistribution and privatization without an adequate enabling environment. This was exacerbated in some countries by the current patterns of economic growth that have accompanied EU accession. As most people in the region still make their living through farming, the threat with the most far-reaching and wide-ranging impact on biodiversity is habitat loss as a result of conversion, fragmentation and degradation through inappropriate land uses in agriculture, forestry and pastureland. The persistence of centralized management priorities, systems and knowledge base within key regulatory/use institutions in some of the countries in the region; the uncertainties during the current transition period regarding status of land and other resources, the legal issues, the poor or limited decision making authority; the declining socio-economic situation and loss of Soviet era support systems are some of the main challenges faced by the regions’ biodiversity. While economic factors are driving the trend towards land consolidation, the national and local land markets are still poorly developed, especially in low-income countries. Land issues are acute in Central Asia, where the population is highly dependent on subsistence agriculture and animal husbandry. Over 80 per cent of the Central Asian region is in climatic zones that are classified as dry, sub-humid, semi-arid or arid and more than half of it is highly susceptible to desertification and land degradation. Desertification and land degradation affect the very survival of the largely rural population in these areas. The challenges and issues responding to the main drivers of biodiversity loss are different for sub-regions and are associated with the: (i) economic and political differences across the region; (ii) over reliance on one main source of funding: GEF; and (iii) capacity of the key stakeholders. One common challenge though is related to changing perceptions viewing conservation and economic development as incompatible.