Biodiversity-CHM.NL - Dutch Government and Biodiversity

Biodiversity Policy Programme 2008-2011

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This section describes the policy programme ‘Biodiversity works: for nature, for people, forever', which sets out the Dutch government's priorities in addressing the biodiversity loss and promoting the sustainable use of biodiversity and natural resources in the years 2008-2011. Cooperation between ministries and with other authorities and actors in civil society is a key feature of this policy. Its intention is to tighten the focus of the current efforts to protect biodiversity. It also sets out the Dutch government's policy response to various signals from the scientific community and society.

At global level, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment has revealed a growing and serious threat to biodiversity and related ecosystem services. As a result, the global Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) may not be met. The MA calls for an ambitious policy with more scope for marketdriven instruments. The fourth Assessment Report (2007) by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) states that climate change is already having a visible impact on biodiversity. A further rise in temperatures by 2-3 degrees would put around 20 to 30% of all species of plants and animals at risk of extinction.

Meanwhile, in 2006 the European Commission has published a Communication and Action Plan on the retention and sustainable use of biodiversity (2006). In it, member states were invited to transpose the Action Plan into national policy. At national level, the IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands (IUCN-NL) also presented a ten-point plan describing the steps it feels are needed to halt the loss of national and international biodiversity. These documents provided a frame of reference and a source of inspiration for the Dutch government's policy programme.

This policy programme also explains what the Dutch government will do to halt biodiversity loss within the EU by 2010, an objective defined by the European Union. At the same time, the government has taken careful note of the European Commission's concern that ‘member states have undertaken steps to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010', but that ‘it is unlikely that this objective will be achieved'. Given the current numbers of species on so-called red lists and our patterns of production and consumption, the government shares this concern for the Netherlands. It is obvious that even after 2010 the preservation and sustainable use of biodiversity will remain a serious, ever more urgent policy challenge. The criteria for sustainability will have to be constantly reassessed against the latest scientific and other insights. The Dutch government has decided to ask the Biodiversity and Natural Resources Task Force to publish an advisory opinion on the steps the Netherlands must take in the period after 2010 and to propose verifiable objectives and targets.

The policy programme ‘Biodiversity works: for nature, for people forever also marks the government's efforts to put the third pillar of its coalition agreement into practice:"a sustainable environment to leave the world better than we found it'". The Dutch government realises that its policy efforts will only have an effect if changes are accepted by the Dutch society and beyond. The government's policy programme ‘Working together, living together' took the first step in this direction by announcing the creation of a task force on ‘biodiversity and natural resources'. The government wishes to use this policy programme to reinforce public commitment to the preservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. One important point is to highlight and increase public awareness of the value and function of biodiversity for humans. This is therefore an important objective for communication and education about biodiversity. The Dutch government also wants to further align a number of priority themes and improve cooperation between the different ministries on these points; it therefore invites other public authorities, companies and non-governmental organisations to contribute to achieving the goals set in these priority areas. The priorities are interwoven with regular activities that will be continued within the existing national and international governance frameworks.

Inter-ministerial Biodiversity Programme Team (IPB)

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Working all together for biodiversity

In order to effectively implement the Dutch biodiversity policy, all departments within the Dutch government work closely together. In 2008, the Inter-ministerial Biodiversity Programme Team (IPB) was established for this purpose. The IPB is responsible for effective implementation of the policy paper Biodiversity Works: for natuur, for people, forever, Policy Programme 2008-2011. This concerns biodiversity all over the world as well as in our own country. The IPB is also responsible for translating recommendations and other findings of the 'Biodiversity and Natural Resources' task force into long-term implementation programmes.

In IPB, each priority is addressed by a Theme Co-ordinator appointed out of the ranks of the participating departments. Each Theme Co-ordinator can be assisted by a Theme Group consisting of civil servants working in the theme concerned (‘1st circle’) and representatives from civil society and the business world.(‘2nd circle'). This way we all work together for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

Organisation

(as of June 2010)

At present, the following departments participate in IPB: the ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV, coördinating ministry), Foreign Affairs (BuZa), and Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM). IPB is technically and administratively supported by SenterNovem. Members of IPB:

Henk de Jong (LNV), Programme Manager;
Marjan Hopman (LNV) and Theo de Gelder (LNV), Programme Secretaries;
Omer van Renterghem (BuZa), Theme Co-ordinator for Trade Chains and Biodiversity;
John van Himbergen (VROM), Theme Co-ordinator Payments for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services;
Gert Eshuis (VROM), Theme Co-ordinator for Biodiversity Works;
Edo Knegtering (LNV), Theme Co-ordinator for Ecological Networks;
Robert-Jan Croonen (LNV), Theme Co-ordinator for Marine Biodiversity and Sustainable Fisheries;
Jieles van Baalen (LNV), Theme Co-ordinator for Knowledge for Biodiversity;
Cathrien de Pater (LNV), Theme Co-ordinator for Communication (including Coalitions) for Biodiversity;

Agenda members:

Arthur Eijs (VROM), Co-Secretary of the Taskforce for Biodiversity and Natural Resources;
Erik van Zadelhoff (LNV), Co-Secretary of the Taskforce for Biodiversity and Natural Resources;

Day-to-day support is provided by a Core Team led by Henk de Jong and consisting of: Marian Homan, Theo de Gelder, Brigitte van Elburg, Cathrien de Pater, and Reshma Soebhag.

Would you like to keep informed? Please register at www.bio-wie.nl, the contact database for biodiversity workers

Priorities in the policy programme 2008 - 2011

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The government of the Netherlands is providing the necessary extra encouragement by focusing on five priority areas in the period 2008 - 2011. They relate to the sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem services, the protection of vulnerable and valuable biodiversity and improvements in the management of marine ecosystems. The government has also chosen to prioritise three key supporting areas relating to the creation of new coalitions, and knowledge and communication concerning biodiversity. The government is also using these specific priority themes and key supporting measures to highlight the Dutch policy accents in its implementation of the EU's Communication and Action Plan on biodiversity and in international and bilateral treaties and partnerships.

Priority areas

The government therefore intends to give priority to increasing the sustainability of economic chains and to have the price of products and services reflect the burden on (or the good management of) biodiversity. The government also wants to see more effective use being made of the benefits of biodiversity in production processes, particularly in agriculture. At the same time, the Dutch government realises that such an approach will only be effective in the longer term and that we cannot conserve biodiversity and natural resources ‘elsewhere' through sustainable trade alone. This is why prompt and urgent action is required in the Netherlands and globally to conserve biodiversity and the natural resources that are most at risk. In the next four years, the Dutch government will therefore focus on creating and improving the ecological networks and on promoting the development - together with international partners and civil society organisations - of new financial instruments. A particular area of attention will be marine biodiversity, both with respect to our own seas (Wadden Sea and North Sea) and the oceans. The threat to marine biodiversity and the risk of natural resources (fish) becoming exhausted are perhaps even more urgent and more complex than on land. Additional measures are needed in the years ahead to promote the sustainable management and protection of these resources.

Biodiversity related international agreements ratified by the Netherlands

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The Netherlands is working to halt the loss of biodiversity around the world in a wide range of international forums. There have been a number of distinct milestones:

The signing of the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in 1992. This convention has three objectives: to conserve biodiversity, to use the natural resources derived from it sustainably, and to share the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources fairly and equitably. These objectives are now part of the aforementioned Millennium Development Goals.;
The agreement made by world leaders in Johannesburg in 2002 to significantly reduce the loss of biodiversity by 2010.
The decision of the European Union to halt the loss of biodiversity within the EU entirely by 2010. This ambitious target places the European Union at the forefront of global efforts to address the loss of biodiversity. In 2006, the European Commission published a Communication and Action Plan setting out a detailed agenda for achieving this objective (see box).

Separate agreements have been concluded on a number of aspects, including reducing the risks of transboundary movements of genetically modified organisms (The Protocol on Biosafety to the CBD), sustainable fishing and Access and Benefit Sharing. Finally, it is worth noting that the Netherlands has invested heavily in biodiversity in the European region in recent years, for example by continuing to develop a Pan-European Ecological Network (PEEN) and by integrating biodiversity into economic sectors. The subject of biodiversity in countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Russia and Ukraine, which is so important for Europe, has also been a prime topic in the government's bilateral contacts with those countries. The relations with the countries that have already joined the EU, in the area of biodiversity, are no longer bilateral but take place within the EU context.

10 European objectives:

Biodiversity and the EU

To protect the EU's most important habitats and species.
To conserve and restore biodiversity and ecosystem services in the EU rural areas.
To conserve and restore biodiversity and ecosystem services in the EU marine environment.
To reinforce compatibility of regional and territorial development with biodiversity in the EU.
To substantially reduce the impact of invasive alien species and alien genotypes on EU biodiversity.

The EU and global biodiversity

To substantially strengthen the effectiveness of international governance for biodiversity and ecosystem services.
To substantially strengthen support for biodiversity and ecosystem services in EU external assistance.
To substantially reduce the impact of international trade on global biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Biodiversity and climate change

To support biodiversity adaptation to climate change.
To substantially strengthen the knowledge base for conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the EU and globally.

Source: European Commission, 2006. Communication of the Commission ‘Halting the loss of Biodiversity in 2010 - and beyond. Sustaining ecosystem services for human well-being'.

Biodiversity policy of the Netherlands 1994-2007

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The Netherlands ratified the Convention on Biodiversity in 1994 and has implemented it through various policy programmes and legislation. Its national policy has been fleshed out in a series of nature policy documents, national environmental policy plans and the development cooperation policy,12 and described in such documents as ‘Strategic Action Plan for Biodiversity' (1995), 'Nature for People, People for Nature (policy document for nature, forest and landscape in the 21st century; 2000)', ‘Sources of existence' (2002), the ‘International Policy Programme on Biodiversity' 2002-2006 (BBI, 2002), the ‘Multi-Year Programme on Defragmentation' (2004, in Dutch), the ‘Policy Letter on Agrobiodiversity' (2004, in Dutch), the Policy Note on Invasive Alien Species (2007, in Dutch) and the policy strategy document 'The habitats approach: a new policy strategy for species' (2007, in Dutch).

One of the Netherlands' aims is to protect biodiversity with a view to preserving species, populations and habitats. This involves setting ambitious targets when implementing national and European agreements (for example, the Birds Directive and the Habitat Directive) and taking an energetic approach to improving environmental conditions and water quality, which in many places in the Netherlands fall below the standard required to guarantee the preservation of biodiversity. Another aim is to help affect the transition to the sustainable use of natural resources, biodiversity conservation and the integration of biodiversity in economic sectors. Sustainable use of biodiversity in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and other sectors in the Netherlands will not only help conserve biodiversity but also create numerous economic opportunities. Finally, there are area-specific measures and the fair distribution of the costs and benefits of restoring biodiversity, for example though the Netherlands' landscape policy .

Parallel to the BBI, the transition programme for the ‘Preservation of biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources' (part of the fourth National Environmental Policy Plan, NEPP 4) has concentrated since 2001 on supporting and facilitating the underlying social change processes. The transition programme, supervised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, consists of a long-term process of identifying, in association with the business community, non-governmental organisations and other ministries, promising developments for effective biodiversity policy. The programme could help set the agenda and provide material for the BBI and its specific projects. An evaluation of the transition programme in 2006 concluded that its approach and focus were good but that it did not have the necessary scale to achieve its ambitions. That is why the implementation of the present policy programme and the work of the ‘Biodiversity and natural resources' task force will include a new working programme for the transition, covering both substance and organisation.

The final relevant document is the ‘Future Agenda for the Environment'. This programme sets out a number of specific actions designed to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and natural resources. One of its key features is the involvement of the authorities, the business community and non-governmental organisations.