Biodiversity Works

The policy programme provides powerful boost to efforts to address one of the central challenges in the EU Communication on Biodiversity: the preservation and active, sustainable use of ecosystem services. Biodiversity and the related ecosystem services are essential natural resources for many economic sectors, including agriculture and fisheries. The sustainable use of these resources and hence their preservation depends on integrating biodiversity into the business operations of companies in these sectors. Preserving these natural resources and using them optimally are vital for sustainable economic development. Although ecosystems have a certain resilience, persistent damage can lead to a sudden dramatic decline in their capacity to provide various services. It is then uncertain whether they will recover, and recovery will be expensive. The sensible course of action, therefore, is to attempt to preserve ecosystems by not burdening them unnecessarily. In the Netherlands, the potential of ecosystems is often not exploited to the full. Recent social cost-benefit analyses have shown that it pays to invest in the landscape in such a way that sustainable use is made of ecosystem services. Their sustainable use is hence a cornerstone of Dutch policy on biodiversity and sustainability.

The Dutch government's aim is to preserve resilient and healthy ecosystems outside the protected areas to the extent required to guarantee their capacity to provide services. In the first place, this will require improving the knowledge and awareness of the functions of ecosystems in our economy, and organising projects to demonstrate the added value of caring for and using ecosystem services. Doing so will prompt innovation in the sustainable use of ecosystem services and contribute to sustainable economic development .

Like the aims it has set for ‘Payment for Biodiversity' and ‘Trade chains and Biodiversity', the government of the Netherlands wishes - no later than 2011 - to reach agreements with the business community on how to integrate ecosystem services into national land use, based on the advice provided by the ‘Biodiversity and natural resources' task force. The government will look for striking examples in the years ahead, in consultation with actors in civil society, and take action on a number of fronts.