More than any other continent, Europe is a mosaic of countries with relatively humanised landscapes.
The ecosystems and processes affecting biological diversity are by large not limited by national borders.
Thus measures taken in a local, regional or national context are often insufficient or even fail. Only an international
framework, supporting coordinating initiatives, facilitates the approach of developing a common safeguard for biodiversity
and landscape. The Council of Europe has pioneered such cooperation since the early 1970's.
The Bern Convention is a binding international legal instrument in the field of nature conservation,
which covers most of the natural heritage of the European continent and extends to some States of Africa.
Its aims are to conserve wild flora and fauna and their natural habitats and to promote European
co-operation in that field.
The preservation and ecological restoration of the green heart of Europe is contemplated by the Council of
Europe as a contribution to the setting-up of a coherent spatial structure and the maintenance
of ecological processes and services.
The European Diploma of Protected Areas was created in 1965. It is awarded to protected areas because
of their outstanding scientific, cultural or aesthetic qualities; they must also be the subject of a
suitable conservation scheme which may be combined with a sustainable development programme.
The Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (PEBLDS) was set up following the Rio Earth
Summit and the adoption of the United Nations "Convention on Biological Diversity". The principal aim of
the Strategy is to find a consistent response to the decline of biological and landscape diversity in
Europe and to ensure the sustainability of the natural environment.
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