AUTHORS: A Arroyo – A Baumueller – David Baldock – Graham Tucker – Indrani Lutchman – Marianne Kettunen – Patrick ten Brink

There is a growing interest amongst stakeholders in the possibility of a post-2010 EU biodiversity policy being more focused on the protection and sustainable use of overall ecosystems and their ecosystem services. This short scoping paper by IEEP and WWF explores what a broader, more ecosystem-focussed approach to EU biodiversity policy could entail, how it could best build on existing policies and initiatives, and what the possible implications (e.g. risks and benefits) of adopting such a regime could be. The paper concludes that an adoption of a more ecosystem-based EU policy regime for biodiversity could bring benefits but it needs to be carefully considered.