The European Environment Agency has published The European Grassland Butterfly Indicator: 1990-2011. Overview and report based on structured surveys - coverage as yet partial, but steep declines attributed to intensified grassland management in western Europe and abandonment in eastern Europe. Suggests that the majority of decline in western Europe predates the survey.
The European Environment Agency Annual Report 2012 is now available - a useful overview of strategy, progress and priorities. Themes in the report are..../
The European Environment Agency is operating Eye on Earth, a website enabling the public to explore visualized environmental data - works best in Internet Explorer. A more detailed background explanation and history is available on the EEA pages.
The European Environment Agency has produced two reports: first The Impacts of Invasive Alien Species in Europe and the second on methods for assessment Invasive Alien Species Indicators in Europe
The EU has just banned the use of neonicotinoids. A feature summary in Nature of research and policy developments relating to the impacts of neonicotinoid insecticides on bees and other pollinators gives a good overview. The European Environment Agency issued the second report on the precautionary principle and impacts from various substances - Late Lessons from Early Warnings: Science, Precaution, Innovation. This follows the earlier review of the history of the precautionary principle Late Lessons from Early Warnings: the Precautionary Principle 1896-2000, produced in 2001.
The UK House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee in April 2013 published the report of its inquiry on Pollinators and Pesticides, with a particular focus on neonicotinoids, which have been causing concern because of reported impacts on both honeybees and wild pollinators. Selected recommendations to the UK government are:
The European Environment Agency has produced an Assessment of Assessments with UNECE. Good overview of environmental assessment purpose, methodologies, limitations, data management and access, policy context and use, potential links to global assessments and other matters.
One of elements of discussion within the IPBES development process is asssessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services - there was a recent informal workshop in Japan that will input to the October plenary of IPBES. In particular, there is a difficulty in finding appropriate scaling, methodology and reasonable data that means assessment processes can have scientific and policy credibility from local to global scales. Some intitiatives of interest: /...more
Nested Networks at the Helmholtz Centre at UFZ - research directly in the context of the IPBES process
The 2009 Assessment of Assessments - looking at marine assessments and needs for science and policy relevance within the UN
A New European Environment Assessment of Assessments - a draft is available and is to be discussed in September 2011 by ministers - undertaken by EEA, but the scope is Europe-wide, not only EU.
A useful summary page on information resources for water in the EU from the European Environment Agency
The State of the European Environment Report (SOER) 2010 is just out from the European Environment Agency. Plenty of useful material on ecosystem services, biodiversity, climate change and other issues.
The European Envirionment Agency has issued a news highlight that makes a useful focus for EU positions, reports and trends, summarising the position in the lead into Nagoya.
