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When these children were at school in Brussels in 1960,

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Europe was a much richer place. Richer, that is, as far as nature is concerned.

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Can you name any other species in Europe which are under threat?

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Nearly 50 years later, at the same European school,

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the children are growing up in a continent where more than four out of ten

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birds and mammals are threatened with extinction.

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Thousands of plants are in danger. But why is it so important

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to preserve biodiversity?

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Nature is very useful to us.

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We use nature to eat. We use nature for

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medicines. Because the trees produce oxygen

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and they take away all the carbon dioxide.

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The EU has been working since the 1970s to protect nature.

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Under its Birds Directive, special conservation areas were established for

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endangered species.

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The Habitats Directive did the same for other wildlife under threat.

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For example, pulling back creatures such as the Iberian lynx from the brink of

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extinction.

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But Europe is the most urbanised continent in the world.

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A fact which, along with unsustainable farming practices and overfishing, has

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taken a huge toll on Europe's nature.

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The sheer scale and speed of our

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lifestyles now mean that we're putting great pressure on nature.

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For instance, building roads, building factories, building homes,

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building on the floodplains, building on the edges of parks and so forth.

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Which is why the EU decided to build up the Natura 2000 network.

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More than 22,000 protected sites across Europe.

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One of which, here in Hungary, the Hortobagy National Park.

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Hortobagy is one of Europe's most beautiful natural sites.

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80,000 hectares of grasslands and wetlands,

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with an astounding mix of plants and wildlife.

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In the 1950s it was another story.

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The whole of this area was turned into rice paddies.

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The river was dammed and canals dug.

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But the rice failed.

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The paddy fields abandoned.

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But the damage to nature was done.

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An EU life project has now helped to fill in the 500 kilometres of canals to

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restore natural vegetation.

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Plants which disappeared decades ago are growing again.

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The Hortobagy river can once again flood naturally and irrigate the plain.

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And the park is now home to around 80,000 cranes.

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These wetlands play an important role as a vital habitat for migratory birds

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and for different species and insects.

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The LIFE programme helped us to preserve this rich and living habitat.

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And now tourism is being built up here.

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An economic asset being created out of a natural asset.

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NATURA 2000 is not just about creating protected reserves.

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It's about creating places where nature and sustainable economic activities

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can go hand in hand.

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The European Union has been a terrific force for recognising the value of nature.

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Let's not forget that something like now 20% of the whole land area of Europe

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has a kind of protection for nature.

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I would have to say that I think it's at the member state level

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that we now really have to put teeth into the laws that are already in place.

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With big challenges still ahead, there's some reassurance for the future

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of Europe's biodiversity hidden away here in the south of England.

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Stored in high security, frozen in vaults 20 degrees below Celsius

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are almost one billion seeds.

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Collected from endangered plants around the world.

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This is the Millennium Seed Bank.

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The aim is to collect seeds from plants that are disappearing in the wild.

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Now the great thing about seeds is that if you dry them and then freeze them,

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you can keep them for many decades, probably many centuries, perhaps even millennia.

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The EU has funded part of this project to build up a collection of Europe's endangered plant species.

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Now seeds from 80% of the 3,500 plants at risk in Europe

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have been collected and are safely in store.

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And already in the greenhouses, seeds are being brought to life,

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often for use in research projects.

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Not least in the field of medicine, around a third of all prescription medicines

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are based on plants such as this mandrake,

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a species which has already died out in some parts of Europe.

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The mandrake is kind of a source of a lot of alkaloid compounds

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and these alkaloids have been found to be useful as anesthetics,

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as drugs for travel sickness.

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Many plants are in effect chemical factories producing lots of different chemicals

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and these chemicals can be used by mankind for a whole variety of medicinal purposes.

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The Millennium Project offers some seeds of hope for the future of nature in Europe,

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but not grounds for complacency.

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All life depends on healthy ecosystems,

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for the purification of water and air,

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for fertile soil and as a defence against the biggest challenge ahead, climate change.

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We're all part of the Tree of Life.

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The EU has committed itself to an action plan

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to halt the loss of Europe's biodiversity over the next three years,

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to preserve the Tree of Life for generations to come.

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We're all part of the Tree of Life.