Dutch Government and Biodiversity

The Dutch government wants the Netherlands to play an active role in Europe and on the wider international stage. The current international objectives of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the European Union's policy continue to dictate the course to be pursued. This means that the Netherlands will continue its efforts to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010 - and beyond - and to contribute to achieving the MDGs.

It will dedicate itself to:

• actively helping to slow the pace of biodiversity loss outside the European Union, in accordance with international agreements.;
• contributing to achieving MDG1, MDG7 and MDG8: linking poverty alleviation to the sustainable use of natural resources, creating a better environment and sustainable economic growth (trade chains).;
• integrating aspects of biodiversity into economic sectors.;
• halting the loss of biodiversity in the Netherlands by 2010 - and beyond - and ensuring that by 2020, sustainable conditions are in place for the survival of all species and populations native to the Netherlands in the recent past (1982).;
• supporting the realisation of these goals by promoting biodiversityrelated participation and knowledge as well as communication and education focusing specifically on the functions, values and visibility of biodiversity.

The policy measures required to achieve these objectives will be implemented by various ministries. In addition to the current policy, the policy programme ‘Biodiversity works: for nature, for people, forever' focuses on priority areas within these objectives which are so urgent and complex that they call for closer collaboration between ministries and with actors in civil society. The aim of the policy programme is to improve policy coherence in priority areas.