EU Launches €30 Mln biodiversity Projects In Partnership With ASEAN

LANGKAWI, Sept 4 (Bernama) -- The European Union (EU) has launched two biodiversity projects worth €30 million (about RM147.7 million)  in partnership with ASEAN to boost nature conservation, strengthen community resilience and promote sustainable financing.

EU Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, Jessika Roswall, said the initiatives – the Nature Solutions Finance Hub and the Strengthening Biodiversity Conservation and Community Resilience project – underline the EU’s commitment to deepen cooperation with ASEAN on environmental challenges that transcend borders.

“Our partnership is not transactional. It is about shared responsibility and working hand-in-hand with the Asian Development Bank, the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity, governments and civil society. This is how we build trust and create real impact,” she said during the EU-ASEAN Joint Side Event: Advancing Biodiversity Protection and Carbon Pricing for a Sustainable Future, here today.

According to her, the projects are not the start of something new but a continuation of a long and trusted partnership.

“Europe is playing its part. By 2030, we aim to protect at least 30 per cent of our land and sea. One third of those areas will be strictly protected. We want to restore at least 20 per cent of degraded ecosystems by 2030 – and all ecosystems in need by 2050. Last year, our Nature Restoration Law entered into force – the first of its kind worldwide. 

“We are also acting to stop the decline of pollinators, to rebuild soils and forests, and to shift harmful subsidies towards investments that heal nature. Our financial commitment is clear, at least €20 billion (about RM98.5 billion) every year for biodiversity, but Europe cannot succeed alone. Nature does not recognise borders. And our economies are linked more tightly than ever,” she said. 

Jessika said the EU has reaffirmed its commitment to work closely with ASEAN countries, including Malaysia, in addressing deforestation concerns while balancing environmental protection and economic growth.

She said the EU’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which covers commodities such as palm oil, has often been a point of contention with ASEAN.

However, she noted that Malaysia has taken impressive steps in tackling deforestation and improving traceability, which are central to meeting the EUDR’s requirements.

“We need to tackle deforestation, and that is one of the reasons that the EU includes the EUDR, the deforestation legislation. We have cooperated very well, and I also want to commend Malaysia for taking impressive steps when it comes to tackling deforestation, as well as tackling the traceability that the EUDR put forward as an obligation.

“So I think how we tackle that is by cooperating, both on a political level and a technical level. We, the Commission and the member states, have an initiative on how to engage with small operators, both with financial support but also on how to share the data system and information. The cooperation is important and I think it will be very fruitful,” she said to reporters after the Joint Side Event.

-- BERNAMA