The European Commissioner for the Environment, Stavros Dimas, warned on 13 November that if measures are not taken to protect biodiversity and prevent the destruction of ecosystems, the damage caused in 2050 will cost the equivalent of 7% of global GDP.

“Nature provides us with clean air, drinking water, food, materials and medicines. It helps regulate the climate and protects us from disasters. We take these free services for granted, but we cannot survive without them,” he warned at a press conference.

The commissioner presented a report on “Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity” on Friday. It is a study on the state of biodiversity in the EU that defends the importance of protecting nature, not only for its environmental interest, but also for its economic profitability, since it is a source of natural resources that are cheaper than the alternatives offered by technological development.

The commissioner stressed the importance of the TEEB study, because, in his opinion, nature will be protected more “effectively” if its value is realized, that is, by putting a “price” on the benefits of nature and the “cost of losing it”.

The risk of losing these ecosystems is “real” and the destruction of biodiversity “continues”, despite efforts such as the European Natura 2000 network that protects 17% of the EU’s territory.

The results of the study will be essential economic data for the development of Community actions within the biodiversity policy beyond 2010 that Brussels plans to adopt next year, coinciding with the International Year of Biodiversity.

Dimas also called for improvements in the monitoring and information systems on the state of ecosystems to have a “solid” basis on which to build new policies.