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Approach and methods
In implementing the policy programme, the transition approach will play a key role in making economic chains more sustainable. This approach focuses on the longer-term aspects and process-driven support of those chains. Chains are multidimensional; they connect local and international levels and cannot be seen separately from each other. The synergy required to bring about change can only be achieved by addressing the problem of how to increase sustainability systematically and from various perspectives. The process of creating more sustainable chains requires the government to collaborate with actors in civil society: the business community, nongovernmental organisations and the knowledge community. The international character of the selected chains poses the additional challenge of integrating the local perspective and local responsibility of the producing partners elsewhere into the programmes. One example of such cooperation is the Initiative for Sustainable Trade (IDH; an inter-ministerial initiative under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Development Cooperation). The IDH is expected to be operational in 2008. It is a multistakeholder venture in which the participants (companies, nongovernmental organisations, trade unions and the Dutch government) will work together to make international trade chains more sustainable, with people, plant and profit in developing countries being a key concern. The focus will be on programmes to improve conditions at the start of the chain in the developing countries.
The policy programme ‘Biodiversity works: for nature, for people, forever' will follow up on existing initiatives and platforms in order to help them achieve a balanced approach. The point of departure is the ecological and biodiversity component in relation to social and economic aspects. Examples include the round tables and partnerships for soya,wood, palm oil and fish meal, and the platform on green raw materials for the energy transition. Many of these are private initiatives (RSPO, the round table on palm oil, RTRS, the round table on sustainable soya, the FSC label for wood, CC-GAP for peat substrate), and the policy programme will provide information and facilitate projects relating to biodiversity in consultation with the other actors. Besides the input in specific chains, the policy programme will establish links between them; after all, there are interactions on both the user and the production sides in the various chains. The multiple uses of the same product (for food, animal feed or energy) not only increase demand and the number of actors involved, but also give rise to new policy choices, raise different aspects of sustainability criteria and labels and affect different social interests. Producers face a growing demand and hence pressure on land and other resources. This means choosing between agricultural production for food or energy, export or national consumption, preservation of ecosystem functions and nature conservation. The challenge is to find an integrated approach that helps making choices which ensure that ecosystem functions are preserved and nature and biodiversity are spared as much as possible. The relationship with the priorities ‘ecological networks' and ‘payment for biodiversity' is obvious.
lthough the emphasis in the priority area ‘trade chains and biodiversity' will be on international cooperation, certain steps must also be taken in the Netherlands itself, principally in relation to the government's purchasing policy and the promotion of corporate social responsibility.
