Public consultation - Biodiversity 2020: Update of Belgium's National Biodiversity Strategy 2006-2016

Which Strategy for biodiversity in Belgium?

The National Focal Point to the Convention on Biological Diversity organised a public consultation on the update of 'Belgium’s National Strategy for Biodiversity 2006-2016' (NBS). The NBS has been developed as a direct response to Article 6 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, Rio, 1992).

National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans are the principal instruments for implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity at the national level. The NBS 2006-2016 was adopted on 26 October 2006 by the Interministerial Conference for the Environment, which is composed of the competent ministers of the Federal Government and the three Regions of Belgium (Flanders, Brussels, Wallonia). It is the first document on biodiversity that is applicable both at the federal and regional levels. The Strategy spells out a range of priority objectives to anticipate, prevent and reduce the causes of biodiversity loss in Belgium. It also aims to implement the CBD and provide an integrated national response to the numerous treaties and agreements on biodiversity to which Belgium is a Party.

The Steering Committees “Biodiversity Convention” and “Nature” initiated jointly the process of updating the NBS 2006-2016. These committees gather the Regional and Federal competent authorities.

Updating the National Biodiversity Strategy is an opportunity to translate into national policy the ambitious global agreement reached at the Nagoya Biodiversity summit during the Belgian Presidency of the European Union at the end of 2010, as well as the outcome of the eleventh Conference of the Parties in 2012. The update also considers the contribution of Belgium to the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy (2011-2020) and the other commitments made until 2013 under biodiversity-related agreements.

The proposals were based on the recommendations formulated for updating the NBS following the conclusions of the mid-term state of play, as approved by the Interministerial Conference of the Environment on 18 February 2013.

The consultation process

The process of public consultation lasted 60 days; commenced on 14 May 2013 and finished on 12 July 2013.The pre-project of Update of the NBS is available in EN / NL / FR / DE for consultation on the website http://www.biodiv.be/implementation/docs/stratactplan/updating-process-nbs (Doc. 3 and Doc. 4). A stakeholders dialogue on the pre-project of Update of the NBS took place on 13/06/2013 (RBINS, Brussels).

The final version of the updated National Biodiversity Strategy 2013-2020 was elaborated by the Steering Committees “Biodiversity Convention” and “Nature”, based on the results of the consultation, and is available on the website www.biodiv.be/implementation/docs/stratactplan in EN / NL / FR / DE.  A publication in the Belgian Official Gazette will explain how the public consultation contributed to the finalization of the NBS.

For any additional information feel free to contact us at

'Public consultation NBS'
CBD National Focal Point
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
Rue Vautierstraat 29
1000 Brussels

T : 02 62 74 545 or 02 62 74 404
F : 02 62 74 195
M : cbd-nfp@naturalsciences.be