Actions related to objective 9.1

Full text of the objective 9.1 "Ensure that the National Strategy is supported by effective legislation and improve enforcement*" from the National Strategy

Brussels:

A revision of the nature legislation in the Brussels Capital Region is under way.

Walloon Region:

• Law on nature conservation ensures the conservation of the type, the diversity and the integrity of the natural environment through protection measures of wild species of flora and fauna, their communities and their habitats, as well as the soil, the undersoil, water and air.
• The walloon region has a unit against poaching ("Unité Anti-Braconnage", UAB). Its priority mission is repression of large scale commercial poaching, and it can intervene on violations of the Nature Conservation Law, Fishing Law and Forestry Code. The files can be initiated by field prospecting, information coming from the local Nature and Forestry sections or from a call center which centralizes requests from nature organizations or private citizens.
• A repression unit on polluttion can intervene on all other fields related to environement laws (water pollution, air pollution, waste...)

Future actions:

• Make sure that biodiversity is included in priority security areas;
• Include the various aspects of biodiversity in legal information processing tools, such as FEEDIS (Feeding Information System) or the national databank;
• Strengthen the staff responsible for checking compliance with biodiversity related regulations, both in term of capacity and organisation, in order to make the presence of these services more effective on the ground and to be able to effectively implement prosecution policy and execute penalties related to biodiversity offences;
• A proactive approach and the use of specific investigation methods could also be developed since tracking offences related to biodiversity regulations proves to be very difficult;
• Enhance cooperation and coordination at the national level among all the actors involved (including inspection services, administrations and customs services) in order to ensure coherent and compatible measures and methodologies;
• Optimise international information exchange mechanisms (Interpol, Europol, etc.).