Translation of "biotique " (French → English) :

(r) ‘natural disaster’: a naturally occurring event of biotic or abiotic nature that leads to important disturbances of agricultural production systems and forest structures, eventually causing important economic damage to the farming and forest sectors;

1. Welcomes the Commission Communication entitled "Tackling the challenges in Commodity markets and on raw materials" (COM(2011)0025) and in particular its broad focus on raw and recovered raw materials from mineral resources and biotic resources, its emphasis on resource efficiency and recycling, and its recognition of the importance of urban mining as a valuable source for retrieving, i.e. re-use, upcycling and recycling raw materials, and its determination to look at all three pillars of this broad challenge, namely assuring a fair and sustainable supply of raw materials from international markets, fostering sustainable supply within ...[+++]the EU and promoting resource efficiency and recycling; notes that recycling often results in downgrading the value of the material, and that more focus should be given to the upcycling of materials which would render a higher value to the retrieved material; points out the potential of re-use as a separate category, to extend the life of products and urges the Commission to develop re-use notably through its ecodesign and waste policies; regrets, however, the lack of proposals for concrete measures by the Commission and cautions that, without such measures, the stated goals are not likely to be reached;

33. Believes that the extension of the lifetime of products and therefore also raw materials and biotic materials, should be promoted as their extraction, use and disposal have a major impact on land use, water, energy and transport; points out that the raw materials strategy must be incorporated into the wider EU 2020 strategy as an essential part of its overall aims, calls for more targeted resource efficiency innovation and points out that a higher efficiency rate in material use has a major impact on the industry and transport sector;

Includes terrestrial and aquatic areas distinguished by geographical, abiotic and biotic features, whether entirely natural or semi-natural.

Various factors can cause damage to forests: pollution, storms, fires, and problems relating to biotic factors and grazing.

Forest fires, biotic agents and atmospheric pollution have a sizeable influence on the ecological condition and productive capacity of forests in the EU.