The administration’s Strategic Plan 2008-2013

In Wallonia, the administration in charge of agriculture, natural resources and the environment has adopted its strategic plan for the period 2008-2013. The plan will be renewed in 2014. This plan contains four actions directly related to nature and biodiversity protection. These actions are accompanied by targets and indicators.

         (i)         by 2013, a framework decree on nature covering all component of the regional territory will be adopted: jurists are currently working on its elaboration.

        (ii)        in order to enhance the implementation of the Natura 2000 network, designation bills will be adopted for the 240 Natura 2000 sites (all of the Walloon sites) corresponding to approximately 13% of the Walloon territory.

       (iii)       a project of an evolutionary catalogue of actions aiming among others to specifically preserve rare and threatened habitats will be elaborated. It should aim at a better integration of nature issues in all relevant sectors and at encouraging exploitation and management methods favourable to wild species. This catalogue should involve public and private stakeholders and define the general objectives for recovery/restoration of nature/biodiversity and to achieve the goal of stopping the loss of biodiversity in Wallonia (see below).

       (iv)       the sustainability of forests ecosystems and wild habitats will be ensured through the implementation of forests and government nature reserve management plans. This specifies that 6 500 ha of forests must be designated as reserves by 2013. At this stage, about 65% of the forest area is covered by new management plans following the circular Circulaire relative aux aménagements dans les forêts soumises au régime forestier’, which is a normative tool for the management planning in public forests. The remaining area should be covered at an annual rate of 12,500 ha for the public forests and 1,300 ha for nature reserves.

Other actions of this strategic plan will also have an added value for biodiversity such as:

• Management and survey of invasive alien species: there will be measures aiming at reducing the threats due to biological invasions in Wallonia.
• Integrated management plans for water courses.