Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Policy responses to the Ukraine crisis threaten European biodiversity

Nature Ecology & Evolution (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

To the Editor — The Russian invasion of Ukraine is first and foremost a human tragedy. This crisis has also abruptly changed the geopolitical landscape and views on globalization as a pathway to increased wealth and security. War has always compromised incentives for collaboration1, and in the case of Ukraine it could jeopardize hard-won gains in efforts to combat global climate change and biodiversity decline. We argue that rash changes to land-use policy currently being made in Europe in response to the invasion are ill-advised, and we call for the establishment of an independent European Biodiversity Council to help to safeguard biodiversity in the region.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Fig. 1: A crop field in Denmark (left) following conversion from a fallow field (right).

References

  1. Calcara, A. Defence Stud. 18, 474–497 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. OECD. Economic and Social Impacts and Policy Implications of the War in Ukraine. oecd.org, https://www.oecd.org/economic-outlook/#energy-prices (accessed 1 May 2022).

  3. Osendarp, S. et al. Nature 604, 620–624 (2022).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Connery, N. Which supermarkets are rationing cooking oil and why has the Ukraine war led to food price hikes? iTV, https://www.itv.com/news/2022-04-23/which-supermarkets-are-rationing-cooking-oil-purchases-over-the-war-in-ukraine (23 April 2022).

  5. Jadhav, R. Indonesia’s palm oil export ban leaves global buyers with no plan B. Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/business/indonesias-palm-oil-export-ban-leaves-global-buyers-with-no-plan-b-2022-04-25/ (25 April 2022).

  6. Sanz‐Pérez, A. et al. J. Appl. Ecol. 56, 2166–2175 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Harfoot, M. B. J. et al. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 5, 1510–1519 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Burns, C., Eckersley, P. & Tobin, P. J. Eur. Public Policy 27, 1–19 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Kenny, J. Env. Polit. 29, 937–958 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. European Environment Agency. State of Nature in the EU Results from Reporting under the Nature Directives 2013–2018.EEA Report No. 10/2020, https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/state-of-nature-in-the-eu-2020 (2020).

  11. Birdlife International. EU Commission plays into hands of anti-nature lobbies, ignores citizens. birdlife.org, https://www.birdlife.org/news/2022/03/23/press-release-eu-commission-delay-nature-restoration-law-again/ (23 March 2022).

  12. Palfrey, R., Oldekop, J. A. & Holmes, G. Nat. Ecol. Evol., https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01715-0 (2022).

  13. Størup, P. Venstre er igen ude med ploven efter naturen – men god krisehåndtering er ikke at starte en ny krise. Altinget, https://www.altinget.dk/miljoe/artikel/stoerup-venstre-er-igen-ude-med-ploven-efter-naturen-men-god-krisehaandtering-er-ikke-at-starte-en-ny-krise (22 March 2022).

Download references

Acknowledgements

J.G. was funded by The Danish Independent Research council (grant 0165-00018B). N.S. and J.W.B were funded by EU Horizon 2020 SUPERB (grant agreement 101036849). N.D.B. was funded by UK Research and Innovation’s Global Challenges Research Fund (UKRI GCRF) through the Trade, Development and the Environment Hub project (project number ES/S008160/1).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Niels Strange

  2. Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Jonas Geldmann & Neil D. Burgess

  3. UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC), Cambridge, UK

    Neil D. Burgess

  4. Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

    Joseph William Bull

Authors
  1. Niels Strange
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jonas Geldmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Neil D. Burgess
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Joseph William Bull
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Niels Strange.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Strange, N., Geldmann, J., Burgess, N.D. et al. Policy responses to the Ukraine crisis threaten European biodiversity. Nat Ecol Evol (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01786-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01786-z

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing