HABITATS GIVE WAY TO MALLS.

This article focuses on a report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Council of Europe, according to which Europe has failed to appreciate just how diverse its wildlife is, and is not doing enough to protect even its poster-child animals such as the Iberian lynx, along with rare bears, storks and warblers. Loss of habitat is of prime concern. In the 1990s some 7700 square kilometres of Europe's fields and forests gave way to car parks, roads, shopping malls and other buildings. That is equivalent to five new cities as big as London, England. Other issues, such as halting the introduction of alien species and promoting farm diversity, need to be taken up much more strongly by governments.