Trading in wildlife under the Habitats and Birds Directives

Although less marked than on other continents, Europe’s systemic diversity displays a number of particular characteristics. More specifically, Western and Central Europe hosts 514 bird species, 62 amphibian species, 127 reptile species, 358 fish species, 576 butterfly species, 187 mammal species and around 12,500 plant species. However, Europeans should seriously fear for the future of their wildlife. Indeed, as natural and semi-natural, continental and coastal ecosystems are undergoing significant modifications as a result of human activity (fragmentation, isolation, intensification of agricultural and forestry practices, etc), animal and plant species are suffering unprecedented rates of extinction. To make matters worse, this negative trend is compounded by an array of additional threats (poaching, excessive hunting, disturbance inflicted by tourism, collision of birds with power-lines, etc). ¹ As a result, the number of species deemed by the IUCN to be under threat in Europe runs into the hundreds: 15 per cent of mammals, 13 per cent of birds, 9 per cent of reptiles, 23 per cent of amphibians, 37 per cent of freshwater fish, 44 per cent of freshwater molluscs and 9 per cent of butterflies are threatened with extinction at a continental scale. ² In particular, a quarter of bird species have undergone a substantial decline in numbers over those last 20 years. ³ Whereas the 1994 Birdlife conservation assessment asserted that 38 per cent of the European avifauna had an unfavourable conservation status, by the time of the second assessment, carried out 10 years later, that appalling figure had reached 43 per cent. ⁴ Since birds generally cope well with environmental changes, it is to be feared that their decline mirrors what is happening to many animal or plant groups: a pronounced deterioration in biodiversity in Europe, both in the distribution and the abundance of species. Last but not least, according to the EEA 2009 report on the 2010 biodiversity target, 40 to 70 per cent of species of European interest in the terrestrial biogeographical regions remain in an unfavourable conservation status. ⁵