OO. 7.4 Evaluate the level of integration of biodiversity into sectoral policies and their impact on biodiversity

Biodiversity in Belgium is mainly threatened by anthropogenic activities, often governed by sectoral policies. Specific research should be developed both to increase current knowledge on the impact of sectoral policies on biodiversity, and to assess the level of integration of biodiversity into these sectoral policies.

The integration of biodiversity management into sectoral policies implies that biodiversity-related issues will arouse interest from different socio-economic actors, such as agro-food, biotechnology, tourism, forestry, fishery.
More research is needed to gain an idea of the effects of present day agrotechnology on both agricultural biodiversity and wild flora and fauna (for example pollinators). Research should also include the study of the effects of emerging technologies (for example GMOs and nanotechnologies) on biodiversity (see Operational Objective 2.1).