Central Asia and flooding everywhere in Europe; addressing the links between poverty and access to safe drinking water and modern sanitation for the marginalized parts of the population; transboundary water cooperation2
; and
acknowledging the importance of natural ecosystems for water management.
For coastal, oceans and marine issues, some of the critical issues for Western Europe include improving coastal zone management and climate change adaptation in the face of rapid sea-level rise; contributing to environmental impact assessment and sustainable regulation of offshore and deep- sea mineral extraction; and addressing plastic pollution and other sources of marine litter (GESAMP 2015). One specific challenge is ocean fishing by pan-European fleets. For the region to contribute to responsible fisheries at the global level, it will be necessary to reduce pan-European fishing globally to sustainable levels, remove subsidies that lead to excess fishing capacity, address inequalities between small- and large-scale fisheries, and support the scientific management of global fisheries in which pan-European boats are present.
For pan-European land, many parts of which are densely populated, there are conflicts between agriculture, settlement patterns, infrastructure development and other land uses under current policies, with a continuing and unsustainable conversion of productive land to other uses. The pan-European region faces issues of food security, the present encouragement of large-scale intensive agricultural production at the expense of more sustainable farming practices, and the best uses for agricultural land in the region. The challenge is to increase the environmental carrying capacity of the available land and to manage land use coherently, with eco-regional planning and biodiversity conservation. Since farmland is being abandoned and villages are shrinking in many rural areas, an effort is needed to provide rural populations with such sustainable activities as environmental stewardship and landscape management,
2 including through the 1992 UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses, and regional river basin conventions.
and to ensure that indigenous populations have secure ownership and access to land and natural resources.
1.1.4 The Sustainable Development Goals with people at the centre
The following SDGs, addressing human health and welfare, also have substantial environmental dimensions.
Goal 1 addresses poverty and the pan-European region does have its poor, even if in some cases the poverty is only relative. Indeed, there has been a recent significant increase in poverty linked to economic crises and austerity programmes. As the poor may contribute to, and are often victims of, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, the elimination of poverty frequently supports environmental goals.
While poverty is still a challenge in the region, it also has a significant role in addressing poverty elsewhere, and should contribute its fair share to the global fight against poverty. Western Europe in particular needs to recognize its unintended effects on poverty in other countries, through consumption patterns that result in a demand for resources from outside of the region and influence prices and investment, effectively depriving less advantaged populations in resource-rich developing countries of land and resources.
Similarly, Goal 2 on hunger, food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture is important for regional and planetary environments. Pan-European agriculture has both sustainable and unsustainable dimensions. Western Europe is increasingly dependent on food imports to meet its needs, and exports to support its economy, increasing its vulnerability to a global food crisis. There are challenges to maintaining its relatively high-cost productive agricultural base in a global market. Consideration also has to be given to the impact of European environmental and food standards on agriculture in other regions.
From a nutritional perspective, Western Europe is home to leading multi-national agribusinesses, and has a food
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Chapter 1: Regional Context and Priorities
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