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Priorities in the policy programme 2008 - 2011
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.
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.
