Biodiversity, action plans: conservation of natural resources, agriculture, fishing and development

The committee adopted the report by Marie Anne ISLER BÉGUIN (Greens/EFA, F) in response to the Commission's paper outlining its biodiversity action plans. The committee said that more ambitious measures were needed in the action plans if the current trend towards a rapid decline in biodiversity was to be reversed. It stressed that the 57 international conventions on sustainable development needed to be better coordinated and pointed out that biodiversity could be better preserved in the EU simply by implementing existing Community legislation. The committee wanted the plans to be geared to achieving results and said they should include explicit indicators to measure progress towards the preservation of biodiversity and contain binding timetables. It called for sufficient funding for Natura 2000 and wanted to see a specific action plan for forests, which was missing from the Commission's communication. Lastly, it repeated Parliament's demand that regional development funds should not be granted for projects that are not environmentally friendly. �