Green infrastructure.
Date: 2010-09-29
Institutions: Directorate-General for Environment
Subjects: biodiversity, countryside conservation, ecosystem, environmental policy

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Building an ecobridge 
over motorway

More information: 
EU website: 
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/
ecosystems/index_en.htm

Natura 2000 Newsletter:
Issue 27, December 2009 
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/
info/pubs/natura2000nl_en.htm

Workshop proceedings:
‘EC workshop: towards a green 
infrastructure for Europe’, March 2009
http://www.green-infrastructure-
europe.org/ and http://ec.europa.eu/
environment/nature/ecosystems/index_
en.htm

EC Guidance
Guidance on the maintenance of 
landscape connectivity features of major 
importance for wild ﬂ ora and fauna (cf 
Article 3 of the Birds Directive (79/409/
EEC) and Article 10 of the Habitats 
Directive (92/43/EEC) Aug 2007 
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/
nature/ecosystems/docs/adaptation_
fragmentation_guidelines.pdf

LIFE funded projects  
In focus publication on LIFE project 
supporting green infrastructure. 
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life 

EU research projects
EU COST project N°341: Habitat 
fragmentation due to transportation 
infrastructure http://cordis.europa.eu/
cost-transport/src/cost-341.htm

© European Commission, 2010

Reproduction is authorised provided 
the source is acknowledged

Fact 6:  EU ﬁ nancial instruments can be used 

to support the development of a green 
infrastructure

Various EU Financial Instruments can be used to help build a green infrastructure. 
Regional Development Funds and the Rural Development Fund, for instance, provide 
a wide range of tools that can be used to enhance spatial connectivity and restore 
natural ecosystems across the wider countryside. They can also be used to support 
the economic diversiﬁ cation of land uses and the creation of multifunctional land 
use areas which are based on maintaining natural ecosystems. 

Agri- or forest- environment schemes in particular can support measures to extensify 
production, limit pesticide or fertiliser use and encourage wildlife friendly practices 
aimed at restoring biodiversity and ecosystems functioning. They also assist in the 
maintenance  of  landscape  features  that  are  important  for  connectivity,  such  as 
hedgerows, unfarmed ﬁ eld margins, woodland patches or streams. 

Under the EU LIFE-Biodiversity fund, projects can be co-ﬁ nanced that improve the 
functional  connectivity  of  wildlife  habitats  and  improve  the  movement  of  species 
between  protected  areas  such  as  Natura  2000.  LIFE-Environment  also  oﬀ ers 
possibilities  to  fund  green  infrastructure  elements  in  urban  and  peri-urban  areas 
and support projects that establish linkages between forested areas. In addition it 
can co-ﬁ nance projects that promote integrated planning initiatives which promote 
ecosystem based approaches to tackle fragmentation and support the multi-purpose 
use of land. 

The  private  sector  is  also  now  applying  biodiversity  oﬀ setting  measures  on 
development schemes as part of their corporate social responsibility programmes. 
If designed with ecology in mind, these measures have the potential to signiﬁ cantly 
enhance the biodiversity of areas that are severely impoverished in terms of nature. 

Fact 7:  Developing an EU strategy on a green 
infrastructure across Europe. 

The development of an EU strategy for a Green infrastructure ﬁ gures prominently in 
the EU’s new post 2010 biodiversity policy. This is because a Green infrastructure is 
viewed as being one of the main tools to tackle threats on biodiversity resulting from 
habitat fragmentation, land use change and loss of habitats. 

Green  Infrastructure  will  play  a  decisive  role  in  integrating  biodiversity  into  other 
policies,  such  as  agriculture,  forestry,  water,  marine  and  ﬁ sheries,  regional  and 
cohesion  policy,  climate  change  mitigation  and  adaptation,  transport,  energy 
and land use policy. It is also an important tool for existing Directives such as the 
Water Framework Directive, the Marine Framework Directive, Environmental Impact 
Assessment and Strategic Environment Assessment Directives.

In  addition,  particular  attention  will  be  given  to  strengthening  the  integration 
of  green  infrastructure  aspects  in  the  EU’s  various  funding  programmes  (eg 
structural  and  cohesion  funds,  CAP,  LIFE)  over  the  current  and  future  ﬁ nancial 
programming period starting in 2013 and to improving the ecological coherence of 
the Natura 2000 Network.

In March 2010 the European Council of Ministers set a new EU target for 
the protection of biodiversity in 2020: ‘The EU intends to halt the loss 
of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services in the EU by 2020, 
restore them in so far as feasible, while stepping up the EU contribution to 
averting global biodiversity loss’.

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NATURE

Green 
infrastructure

Europe’s landscape has faced more habitat loss and fragmentation than 
any other continent. This is a major problem for biodiversity.

Although core nature areas are now largely protected under the Natura 
2000 Network, species still need to be able to move between these areas 
if they are to survive in the long term. 

A  green  infrastructure  will  help  reconnect  existing  nature  areas  and 
improve the overall ecological quality of the broader countryside.

A green infrastructure will also help maintain healthy ecosystems so that 
they can continue to deliver valuable services to society such as clean air 
and fresh water. 

Investing  in  a  green  infrastructure  makes  economic  sense:  maintaining 
nature’s capacity, for instance in mitigating against the negative aﬀ ects of 
climate change, is far more cost-eﬀ ective than having to replace these lost 
services with much more costly man-made technological solutions.

A green infrastructure is best achieved through an integrated approach to 
land management and careful strategic spatial planning.

All  land  users  and  policy  sectors  should  be  engaged  early  on  in  the 
process of developing a green infrastructure and apportioned a share of 
the responsibility in its delivery.

The European Commission is developing a strategy for an EU-wide Green 
Infrastructure as part of its post-2010 biodiversity policy.

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Rivers are an important element 
of green infrastructure

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Fact 1:  Europe’s landscape is 

increasingly fragmented
Compared  to  other  regions  of  the  world,  the  EU  is  a  relatively 
densely  populated  continent,  and  much  of  the  land  is  in  active 
use. As a result, many of the natural areas that remain are under 
pressure  and  at  risk  of  becoming  fragmented.  This  aﬀ ects  the 
functioning of our ecosystems, as they need space to thrive and 
deliver their services.

Healthy  ecosystems  are  part  of  our  life-support  system  and 
biodiversity  is  the  basis  for  ecosystems’  health  and  stability. 
Ecosystems made up of many diﬀ erent species are more likely to 
remain stable when there is some damage or loss than ecosystems 
comprising fewer species. 

Habitat fragmentation is caused by a whole range of diﬀ erent factors 
linked  to  changes  in  land  use  including  urban  sprawl,  transport 
infrastructures and intensifying farming or forestry practice. 

Recent statistics from the European Environment Agency illustrate 
just how signiﬁ cant these trends are. Some 8,000 km² were concreted 
over during the 1990s, representing an increase in artiﬁ cial areas of 
5% in just 10 years. In addition, 15,000 kms of new motorways were 
constructed within the EU between 1990 and 2003. 

Fact 2:  Wildlife needs to be able to 

exist outside protected areas

Core areas – important for rare and threatened species and habitat 
types – are now largely protected through the Natura 2000 Network 
which  contains  26,000  sites  and  covers  around  18%  of  the  EU 
territory.

But action also needs to be taken within the remaining 82% of the 
territory if we are to stem the loss of biodiversity in Europe. This is 
because wild plants and animals need to be able to move, migrate, 
disperse  and  exchange  populations  between  protected  areas  in 
order to secure their long term survival. 

Urban  sprawl, 
forestry  practices  and 
farming  or 
transportation  routes  all  present  signiﬁ cant  and  sometimes 

intensive 

insurmountable obstacles to species movement. They also render 
the wider environment more hostile and inaccessible to wildlife. 

Building  a  green  infrastructure  will  help  to  reconnect  existing 
nature  areas,  for  instance  through  wildlife  corridors  or  stepping 
stones and eco-bridges, as well as improve the general ecological 
quality  of  the  wider  environment  so  that  it  is  more  friendly  and 
permeable to wildlife. 

Fact 3:  A green infrastructure helps 
maintain valuable ecosystem 
services 

The  loss  of  natural  areas  has  repercussions  well  beyond  the 
disappearance  of  rare  species.  Ecosystems,  which  are  powered 
by the diversity of life within them, provide society with a stream 
of  valuable,  economically  important  goods  and  services  such  as 
water puriﬁ cation, soil fertilisation, carbon storage etc. 

They  also  play  a  central  role  in  ﬁ ghting  climate  change  by 
protecting us against ﬂ oods and other negative eﬀ ects of changing 
weather patterns. Intact ﬂ oodplains, for instance, play an important 
role in helping to alleviate ﬂ oods by storing water and releasing it 
back slowly into streams and rivers. Forests act as carbon sinks and 
prevent soil erosion. Wetlands absorb pollutants and improve the 
quality of our freshwater supply. 

That is why investing in a green infrastructure also makes economic 
sense. Having to ﬁ nd man-made solutions to replace the services 
that  nature  oﬀ ers  for  free  is  not  only  technically  challenging  but 
also very expensive. 

The  overall  objectives  of  a  European  green  infrastructure  are 
therefore to:

•  maintain  Europe’s  biodiversity,  for  instance  by  ensuring  the 
ecological  coherence  and  connectivity  of  the  Natura  2000 
Network (cf article 10 of the Habitats Directive) and, 

• 

safeguard  and  restore  valuable  natural  ecosystems  at  a 
broader landscape level so that they can continue to deliver 
valuable services to mankind. 

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Making space for nature to provide 
valuable ecosystem services 

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Nature in peri-urban areas is important 
for landscape connectivity

Fact 4:  Making space for nature through 

a more integrated approach to 
land use

A  European  green  infrastructure  can  be  developed  using  a  variety  of 
techniques. They can include for instance: 

• 

• 

• 

Improving  connectivity  between  existing  nature  areas  in  order  to 
counter  fragmentation  and  increase  their  ecological  coherence  e.g. 
by  safeguarding  hedgerows,  wildlife  strips  along  ﬁ eld  margins,  small 
watercourses;

Enhancing landscape permeability to aid species dispersal, migration 
and movement e.g. through the introduction of wildlife friendly land 
uses  or  agri/forest  environment  schemes  that  support  extensive 
farming practices;

Identifying  multifunctional  zones.  In  these  areas,  compatible  land 
uses  that  support  healthy  biodiverse  ecosystems  are  favoured  over 
other  more  destructive  practices.  They  may  for  instance  be  areas 
where  farming,  forestry,  recreation  and  ecosystems  conservation  all 
operate together in the same space. Such ‘win-win’ or ‘small loss, big 
gain’ combinations can deliver multiple beneﬁ ts not just to those using 
the land (farmers, foresters, tourism providers, etc..) but also to society 
at large through the provision of valuable ecosystem services such as 
water puriﬁ cation or soil improvement and the creation of attractive 
‘breathing spaces’ for people to enjoy.

Fact 5:  Spatial planning helps create a 

green infrastructure

In practice, one of the most eﬀ ective ways of building a green infrastructure 
is to adopt a more integrated approach to land management. This, in turn, 
is  best  achieved  through  strategic  level  spatial  planning  which  enables 
spatial interactions between diﬀ erent land uses to be investigated over a 
large  geographical  area  (eg  region  or  municipality).  Strategic  planning  is 
also a means of bringing diﬀ erent sectors together in order that they may 
decide together on local land use priorities in a transparent, integrated and 
cooperative way. 

Spatial planning can guide infrastructure developments away from sensitive 
sites, thereby reducing the risk of further habitat fragmentation. It can also 
identify ways to spatially reconnect remaining natural areas, for instance by 
encouraging habitat restoration projects in strategically important places or 
by integrating elements of ecological connectivity (eg ecoducts or natural 
stepping stones) into new development schemes. 

Potential components of a 
green infrastructure: 
• 
•  Healthy ecosystems and area of high 

Protected areas, such as Natura 2000 sites;

nature value outside protected areas such 
as ﬂ oodplain areas, wetlands, coastal areas, 
natural forests etc…;

•  Natural landscape features such small 

water courses, forest patches, hedgerows 
which can act as eco-corridors or stepping 
stones for wildlife;

• 

• 

Restored habitat patches that have been 
created with speciﬁ c species in mind eg 
to help expand the size of a protected 
area, increase foraging areas, breeding or 
resting for these species and assist in their 
migration/dispersal;

Artiﬁ cial features such as eco-ducts or 
eco-bridges, that are designed to assist 
species movement across insurmountable 
landscape barriers;

•  Multifunctional zones where land uses that 
help maintain or restore healthy biodiverse 
ecosystems are favoured over other 
incompatible activities;

• 

Areas where measures are implemented to 
improve the general ecological quality and 
permeability of the landscape;

•  Urban elements such as green parks, green 
walls and green roofs, hosting biodiversity 
and allowing for ecosystems to function 
and deliver their services by connecting 
urban, peri-urban and rural areas;

• 

Features for climate change adaptation 
and mitigation, such as marshes, ﬂ oodplain 
forestsand bogs -. for ﬂ ood prevention, 
water storage and CO2 intake, giving space 
to species to react to changed climate 
conditions .

Ecobridge in Veluwe, 
Netherlands

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