Home

PURPLE Today

EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and peri-urban

Jun 1, 2020

In May 2020, the European Commission (EC) published the slightly delayed EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 with the strapline “Bringing nature back into our lives”, and complete with annex containing a draft action plan comprising almost 40 specific actions. As well as the 27 page Strategy + annex document, the EC published at the same time a “Factsheet” on the EU Biodiversity Strategy (with the same “Bringing nature back into our lives” title), a four-page Questions and Answers document and a second factsheet specifically addressing “The business case for biodiversity”.

The Strategy document contains reference to the peri-urban, specifically to the greening of urban and peri-urban areas. Reading the text suggests that by peri-urban what is probably meant is in fact more "suburban", and certainly what the text goes on to describe is very much straight urban. Nevertheless the reference is there as part of a larger argument for more urban greening, healthier ecosystems and more and better Green Infrastructure.

Subsequent to the publication of the Strategy and accompanying documents, the EC Policy Department for Structural and Cohesion Policies has produced a Briefing for the benefit of the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee. That too contains a reference to peri-urban, and reports that the EU Nature Restoration Plan within the Strategy contains "key sectoral commitments by 2030 for agriculture, forests, marine areas and urban/periurban areas".