Living in harmony with nature

France, home to outstanding natural heritage

France boasts a rich natural heritage, with a great diversity of landscapes. France covers every ocean, four of Europe's five major biogeographical regions, and is home to two-thirds of the habitat types of Community interest from plains to mountains, from fields to urban forests, from glaciers to estuaries, from tropical forests to Austral Lands, France has a treasure trove to protect. Altogether, 10% of the world's known species are found on French territory (more than 200,000 species), and more than 600 new species are identified there every year, most of them in the French Overseas Territories.

France is the country with the sixth highest number of threatened species on the IUCN’s Red List: out of more than 12,500 species assessed in France, more than 2,700 are threatened, a quarter of which are strictly endemic. Only a fifth of the habitats and a quarter of the species of Community interest currently have a favourable conservation status in France.

Preserving and restoring France's biological diversity, both in France and overseas—in terms of genetic diversity, species and ecosystems—there- fore plays a major role in achieving international objectives for the protection of living organisms.

The ambitions of the National Biodiversity Strategy 2030

The strategy is structured aroud four key areas wich outline the path towards the 2050 vision of the global diversity framework :

• Area 1 : Reduce pressures on biodiversity
• Area 2 : Restore degraded biodiversity wherever possible
• Area 3 : Mobilise all stakeholders
• Area 4 : Guarantee the means to achieve these ambitions

A total of 40 measures are derived from these four areas, allowing the integration of biodiversity objectives and nature-based solutions into key sectoral policies. Each measure has a dedicated action sheet, appended to this strategy, wich details, in accordance with the recommendations arising from the assesment of the previous biodiversity strategy :

• The context and challenges
• The ministry(ies) and operators in charge of or involved in the measure
• The pressure(s) identified by the IPBES that the measure addresses
• The target(s) of the global framework to wich the measure relates
• The stakeholders affected by the measures (French State, different levels of local authorities, businesses, citizens, etc.)
• The environment(s) to wich the measure applies (forest, seas and oceans, wetlads, soils, etc.)
• The various actions enabling the measure to be implemented, including, for each : - a lead ministry or operator responsible for reporting - an objective for action - a description of the action - monitoring indicators with, where possible, associated target values - calendar milestones for implementing the action  

The National Biodiversity Strategy 2030 is linked to other national strategies, national plans and laws that have an impact on nature but whose main purpose is not biodiversity.