Europe risks a rising wave of wildlife extinctions as it continues to massively under-resource and under-enforce nature and wildlife protection, WWF has warned, following the release of a report by the European Commission showing 65 per cent of European habitats and more than half its remaining species are under threat. "Our neglect of the health of our natural systems is setting ourselves up for the negative economic effects of an environment less diverse and thus less resilient to climate change," said Andreas Baum�ller, Biodiversity Policy Officer at WWF's European Policy Office. The first assessment of the outcomes of the EU Habitats Directive, originally adopted 17 years ago, shows that with 65 per cent of habitats and 52 per cent of species considered in bad or unfavourable conservation status, Europe will miss its commitment to halt biodiversity loss by 2010. The analysis published by the European Commission shows that over the last decade the European Union has reduced its direct investments in nature protection to a tiny 0.1 per cent of the EU budget. The report shows that decades of intensive agriculture and effectively unregulated fisheries have put European natural resources in a critical status. In areas dependant on agriculture, almost 80 per cent of habitats are in trouble and almost 90 per cent of commercial fish stocks are overfished, with a third at risk of being beyond recovery.

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