Southern Europe

The EU Biodiversity Strategy, launched in 2020, is a “long-term plan to protect nature and reverse the degradation of ecosystems.” The strategy contains specific actions and commitments, and states that at least 30% of EU seas must be legally protected and properly managed and monitored by 2030. "Protecting 30% of the Mediterranean Sea could give a massive boost to declining fish species and marine biodiversity, research reveals. Today, only 9.68% of the Mediterranean Sea has been designated for protection, with only 1.27% effectively protected...However, it must be matched with concrete actions to reverse negative trends in the Mediterranean such as declining fish stocks due to unsustainable fishing. It is also crucial to tackle the impacts of climate change, which put the livelihoods of millions who depend on the sea basin’s health at risk." In 2021, a coalition of NGOs published a 10-point action plan, including an end to trawling, in response to the European Parliament draft report on the EU's biodiversity strategy for 2030.

“With the cruise ships gone and the souvenir stalls closed, the coronavirus lockdown has transformed La Serenissima’s waterways... The clarity of the water has improved dramatically. ‘The water is blue and clear...not just a clear view of the sandy bed, but shoals of tiny fish, scuttling crabs and multicoloured plant-life,’ said Gloria Beggiato, who owns the celebrated Metropole Hotel a few steps from St Mark’s square... Cormorants have returned to dive for fish they can now see. At the Piazzale Roma vaporetto stop, ducks have even made a nest...‘All totally unimaginable a while ago.’”

“In March 2018, French scientists reported a steep decline in the country's bird populations, primarily as a result of agricultural activity. Causes include the increase in monoculture, detrimental land-use policies and, perhaps most importantly, the growth in the use of powerful pesticides such as neonicotinoids, which, by killing off insects, reduces the bird population by reducing the food available to them. With an average decline of 33%, a host of once-common farmland bird species is disappearing—the grey partridge, the Eurasian skylark, the meadow pipit and many others.”

"More than 50 percent of the sharks and rays native to the Mediterranean Sea are at a high risk of extinction, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced Monday. The major driver of their decline is overfishing, researchers say."

"Due to habitat loss and degradation, hunting, car hits, and epidemics affecting rabbits, their main prey, the Iberian lynx is the world’s most endangered feline species. There are real fears that it may soon become the first cat species to become extinct for at least 2,000 years....In the early 19th century the Iberian lynx was found in Spain, Portugal and Southern France. It has steadily declined since then, falling to the dangerously low levels today. At the beginning of last decade there were only two isolated breeding populations of Iberian lynx remaining in the world, located in southern Spain, and totaling about 100 adult animals, with only 25 breeding females. IUCN’s assessment in 2007 stated that the numbers were not sufficient for the survival of the species in the long term , putting this wild cat on the brink of extinction. Thanks to the joint efforts of the Spanish national and regional administrations, different NGOs (like WWF) and the European Union (via the Life projects), the total population is currently increasing.” Today, there are between 84 -143 adult individuals.

“Overfishing is still the most important threat to Mediterranean underwater ecosystems, “more than pollution, invasive species, or climate change”, says Enric Sala, one of the authors of the most comprehensive study made of the sea,” entitled “Large-Scale Assessment of Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas Effects on Fish Assemblages.” According to Sala, “fishes will not be abundant, and the native species that the Greeks and Romans started to fish commercially will be rare — and most fisheries and the jobs they support will collapse.”

"The latest regional update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species finds bad news for mammals living around the Mediterranean. One in six species in the area are now threatened with extinction, according to the IUCN report, 'The Status and Distribution of Mediterranean Mammals,'—the first major assessment of mammals in this region. More than 250 experts contributed to the study."

"Indicatively, 56,000 wildfires between 2009 and 2018 devastated land in six Mediterranean countries – Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, and Turkey – resulting in the loss of 0.6 percent of Mediterranean forest land each year, and worse yet, human fatalities. Between 2000 and 2016, 488 firefighters and civilians lost their lives in Europe, while in 2017 and 2018, 225 people died in fires in Greece, Portugal, and Spain. Last July [2019] in Greece, some 102 (confirmed) people died after a wildfire ravaged the Northeastern Attica coastline. According to WWF findings, 96 percent of all forest fires in the Mediterranean are human induced, mostly due to deliberate lighting of forest fires and negligence, while at the same time, culprits are rarely punished. As a result, Mediterranean ecosystems are becoming unable to naturally regenerate, while extensive areas are experiencing biodiversity loss, soil erosion – which leads to desertification- and water scarcity."

Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve of the Mediterranean, a trans-boundary reserve between Morocco and Spain, "runs between southern Andalusia and northern Morocco, forming an open arc towards the Mediterranean and fractured by the Strait of Gibraltar." It is the first intercontinental reserve declared by UNESCO, in hopes of facilitating greater intercontinental stewardship and conservation of this critical area for ecological as well and exchange between the European and African continents, as well as between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

The Pyrenean ibex, a form of wild mountain goat, was declared extinct in 2000. The last-known individual was found in northern Spain.

"The urban area of Venice, Italy, is also threatened by sea level rise. Venice is an ancient city built on a series of islands in a lagoon on the coast of the Adriatic Sea...Venice’s main "streets" are actually canals and smaller waterways... In the past century, flooding has become more frequent. In 1900, the city’s main piazza was underwater seven times. In 1996, it flooded 99 times.”

“Fire is the main cause of forest destruction in the countries of the Mediterranean basin. About 50,000 fires sweep through 700,000-1,000,000 hectares of Mediterranean forest each year, causing enormous economic and ecological damage as well as loss of human life...Statistics on the causes of forest fire in the Mediterranean region are far from complete, but it is evident that the majority of fires are set by people.”

“The military operations conducted by Nato against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the 1999 Kosovo crisis caused serious damage to the country’s natural environment….The bombing subjected ecosystems, surface water, groundwater, soil and air in the Balkans to unprecedented contamination involving over 100 toxic substances….Until recent events Yugoslavia was relatively unpolluted. Up to 4% of the country (400,000 hectares) is protected areas or nature reserves (there are 1,800 such protected zones), containing rare plant and animal species. Bombing raids and missile strikes affected not less than 13 national parks and nature reserves, including such well known ones as Taga (which is on the Unesco Global Heritage List), Kopaonik, Fruska Gora, Sarplanina and Vrsacke Planiny."

"On April 25, 1998 the dam of the mining residual tank of a pyrite mine in Aznalcollar, Spain suffered a rupture, releasing sludge and contaminated wastewater. The waste water entered the Guadiamar River, polluting the river with heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, zinc and copper. It affected an area of 4.634 hectares, contaminating 2.703 hectares with sludge and 1.931 with acidic water."