This year, we celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Habitats Directive, Europe’s historical key legal instrument in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. In the past three decades, much has been achieved for biodiversity in Europe, but much more need to be done. The European Commission recently developed criteria and guidance to reach the 30×30 target of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, in line with the global targets proposed to the 15th Conference of the Parties of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and with the objectives of the Bern Convention.

The definition of clear targets for biodiversity conservation is crucial; however, the post-2020 framework also needs to consider the interconnected effects of biodiversity conservation on human health and well-being, social justice and gender equity. Enhancing the ownership of the biodiversity targets from stakeholders may help improve their implementation, both the EU and the global targets. In this context, research within the ENVISION project [1] can provide some guidance; the project supports the development of an inclusive approach to the management of protected areas, known as inclusive conservation, with the aim of improving biodiversity and human well-being and more equitable protected area management governance. Inclusive conservation is an approach for accommodating and balancing different stakeholder visions for protected area management to achieve socially relevant and environmentally sustainable outcomes in protected areas. ENVISION is co-funded by BiodivERsA and the Belmont Forum with support from Horizon 2020 and national funding.

Therefore, this online event aims at providing a space for dialogue between EU institutions, international experts and academia, to explore the potential of the inclusive conservation approach and how it can help in the implementation of both the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. This event will be kindly hosted by MEP Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg, and organized under the umbrella of the European Parliament Intergroup on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, in collaboration with the IUCN European Regional Office.

[1] ENVISION is a 3-year project funded through the 2017-2018 Belmont Forum and BiodiveERsA joint call under the BiodivScen ERA-Net COFUND programme. The ENVISION project will result in the development of several communications and policy tools to identify, compare and balance the multiple visions for any given area. ENVISION will also enhance understanding about social and ecological consequences of protected area management with an aim to facilitate reflection on future growth and landscape change.