It is a vast region, crossing 14 times zones, and hosting a rich diversity of wildlife, including endemic species such as the Siberian (Amur) tiger and Iberian lynx. Add to these, the stunning range of habitats that can be found across the region, including the Arctic tundra, the Danube - the most international river basin in the world; the mountainous ecosystems of the Carpathians and the Altai-Sayan; and, closer to home, the cold water coral reefs of the north east Atlantic Ocean.


Current threats & problems

Some human activities pose a real threat to the region's natural environment, its wildlife, and its people and their livelihoods. Perhaps the most serious is the impact of global climate change. For example, the thickness of Arctic sea ice has decreased by 40 per cent in less than three decades and lost 14 per cent of its volume since 1978 (equivalent to an area the size of Texas).

Climate change drives or makes worse the impact of other worrying trends such as unsustainable fishing, wetland loss and degradation, forest loss and degradation, toxic chemicals, and the loss of species.


What WWF is doing

WWF UK has supported environmental programmes in Europe since 1962 and currently the European Programme spends £538,000 on 13 projects in 7 countries.

Recent successes include:

Spanish Water Transfer plan halted
WWF-UK has worked with colleagues in Spain and Brussels to stop the highly damaging Spanish National Hydrological Plan. As a result the future of the Ebro River in northern Spain - internationally important for migratory birds - now looks brighter, and the globally endangered Iberian lynx in southern Spain has one less threat to contend with.

Dams
WWF-UK has played a significant role in assisting our colleagues in Poland and Hungary to fight dam proposals on the Vistula (the Nieszawa Dam) and Drava (the Novo Virje Dam) rivers respectively. In Poland, the proposal has been withdrawn. On the Drava, the Hungarian Government has now rejected the dam and we continue lobbying the Croatian Government to do the same on this tributary of the Danube river, western Europe's longest river.

Both successes would not have been as significant if our supporters had not lobbied the governments via panda passport.

Whales safer as a result of WWF pressure
WWF-UK has worked with WWF Russia to put pressure on oil multinational Shell and the international banks over proposals to develop oil and gas reserves around Sakhalin Island in the Sea of Okhotsk. Oil exploration and exploitation threatens the endangered western gray whale (less than 200 individuals in the world). The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is now witholding finance subject to more information from Shell on the environmental assessment of it's proposals, and Shell have delayed work in the area most important to the whales.

WWF UK's European Programme is currently working on four key issues:

• Mediterranean cork oak landscapes;


• The European Union;


• Oil and gas;


• and the Altai Sayan, Mongolia;


• including the Amur Tiger.

Mediterranean cork oak landscapes
Covering 2.7 million hectares and stretching across 7 countries - Portugal, Spain, Algeria, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and France, these unique landscapes have been managed for thousands of years, supporting people's livelihoods and a wealth of wildlife. However, they are threatened by damaging policies, by changing markets and by the loss of knowledge on good management practices. They are also facing degradation due to changes in land use, climate change and forest fires.

In Spain and Portugal, Cork and Holm Oak forests landscapes host the Iberian lynx - the world's most endangered big cat, reduced to about 150, the Iberian Imperial Eagle - one of the most endangered birds of prey in the world, with 150 pairs. In North Africa, Cork and Zen Oak forests are habitats to the critically endangered Barbary deer - Africa's only deer, with numbers thought to be below 200.

WWF is working to protect, manage and restore the natural wealth of these cork oak landscapes by influencing the policies, practices and markets that affect them.

The European Union
The European Union is a major player on the world stage in political, economic and environmental matters.

In May 2004, another 10 countries (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) joined the existing 15 Member States in an historic enlargement process. The EU now stretches from the Republic of Ireland in the west to the eastern boundary of Poland in the east; from Finland in the north to Cyprus in the south. It hosts a population of some 470 million people.

Enlargement presents both great challenges and risks for the environment, yet also extraordinary opportunities - not only for the new countries but for Europe as a whole.

Central and Eastern Europe is home to many species that are rare or extinct in Western Europe, including Bear, Lynx, Wolf, Beaver, Bison, Great Bustard and Corncrake. All of these species will receive increased protection.

The damage the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has caused in the EU could be magnified across the expanded EU unless it is reformed. For example, UK populations of farmland birds - such as the once-common tree sparrow - have declined by as much as 90 per cent over the past 30 years, largely as a result of the kind of intensive, industrial agricultural practices promoted by the CAP.

WWF will be working hard to make sure that EU money doesn't destroy EU protected areas and species, and also to make sure that EU laws are fully implemented.

Oil and gas
Two examples of the valuable and precious marine regions in WWF's European Programme are the Barents Sea (adjacent to north east Norway and north west Russia) and the Sea of Okhotsk (at the far eastern side of Russia.). The Barents Sea is one of the cleanest and most undisturbed seas in the world. It has the world's highest density of seabirds, some of the world's richest fisheries and important communities of marine mammals.

The Sea of Okhotsk is home to 11 endangered species including the Western Pacific Gray Whale which is critically endangered in this region. Recent scientific evidence suggests that there are less than 100 individuals, and possibly fewer than 20 reproductive females capable of bearing calves.

Both regions are also rich in oil and gas and are the subject of massive exploration and exploitation programmes by oil and gas companies.

WWF is working hard to ensure that where oil and gas is extracted and transported, it does not threaten the amazing biodiversity of these northern seas.

Altai Sayan, Mongolia
There are only a few regions in the Northern Hemisphere where nature is still as pristine as in the Altai-Sayan. This region of mountains, forests and lakes occupies an area of over 845,000 square kilometres. Stretching for more than 2,000 kilometres from east to west and over 1,500 kilometres from north to south. The Altai Sayan is located between the great northern taiga forests of central and eastern Siberia, the steppes of western Siberia, the Altai Mountains and the Gobi Desert of China and Mongolia

It's landscape diversity and cultural and historical heritage is intimately linked with it's biological richness.

WWF is working in this area to establish a network of protected areas with the ultimate goal to ensure the long-term preservation of biodiversity in the Altai-Sayan region - for the next 50 years and beyond.

The Amur tiger
The Siberian (Amur) tiger is the largest, heaviest and palest of the tiger sub-species. It all but disappeared in the 1940s when the population declined to fewer than 40 animals. Numbers have now grown to around 400 animals, but their long-term survival still hangs in the balance. The main threats are poaching, inadequate protection of the tigers habitat, prey animals, increased logging, construction of roads and forest fires.

WWF is working with other organisations to tackle these threats. A full census is taken every ten years. The new figures will be released in the next two years and are expected to show an increase in numbers.