The dynamics of European Union biodiversity policy: interactive, functional and institutional logics

Adopting a multi-level governance approach, this article explores the interactions between the international CBD regime, the European Union and the member states in relation to biodiversity conservation policy. The European Community signed the UN Convention on Biodiversity in 1992. Between 1993 and 1998 EU biodiversity policy was ad hoc. The 1998 Biodiversity Strategy provides a more strategic response. Early biodiversity conservation efforts were hampered by member state persistent non-compliance with key legislation. Increasingly, however, collective action is the norm, being driven by the functional logic of nature conservation and by the institutional logic of the CBD. However, collective action is none the less constrained by the EU system of environmental governance. The result is a structural stress, which has the cumulative effect of enhancing the complex interdependencies that exist between these multilevel actors.