Europe has failed to appreciate just how diverse its wildlife is, and is not doing enough to protect even its poster-child animals such as the Iberian lynx, along with rare bears, storks and warblers. That is the message from a report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Council of Europe, which accuses the continent’s nations of not doing enough to protect biodiversity.
Loss of habitat is of prime concern. In the 1990s some 7700 square kilometres of Europe’s fields and forests gave way to car parks, roads, shopping malls and other buildings. That is equivalent to…
