Swedish Environmental Protection Agency

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency is a national environmental authority under the Swedish Government and the Ministry of the Environment. Its mission is to coordinate and drive forward environmental work nationally and internationally. SEPA coordinates the implementation of the Convention on Biodiversity in Sweden, and is in particular responsible for the protection of habitats and species and for environmental monitoring and follow up.

Biodiversity and related research
Most of the work of SEPA relies on scientific research to underpin policy development, implementation and assessment, and therefore SEPA receives research funding, approximately 11 million euros per year, from the government. This funding is a smaller part of the total public sector Swedish research funding devoted to environmental issues. SEPA is currently spending about 2 million euros per year to carry out three thematic biodiversity research programmes (the Nature Conservation Chain, MARBIPP and Aqualiens). In addition, SEPA allocates funding for game research and research on adaptive management of biological resources.

A new programme recently started is “Adaptive management of Fish and Wildlife Populations’’ with 9 projects and a budget of 800, 000 € in addition to 2 million already mentioned.

SEPA is actively participating in EPBRS and is partner of the thematic network BioPlatform European Platform for Biodiversity, funded by the Commission within the 5th EU Framework Programme.