The Conference “The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: implications for Belgium” took place on October 27th, 2006, at the Palace of the Academies in Brussels. The Conference was convened by the National SCOPE Committee (Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment of ICSU, the International Council for Science) and the National Committee for Biological Sciences of the Belgian Royal Academies.

Conference proceedings

The proceedings of the Conference are available for download in pdf format here (3,3 Mo). This document can be disseminated free of rights. If you wish to obtain a paper copy (at the price of 10€ including postal costs), please send an email to CBD-NFP@naturalsciences.be or write to the CBD National Focal Point, RBINS, rue Vautier 29, 1000-Brussels. Bourdeau, Ph. & E. Zaccaï (Eds). 2007. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Implications for Belgium. Proceedings of a Conference held in Brussels on 27 October 2006. Royal Academies of Sciences and the Arts of Belgium and Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, 132 p.

General scope of the MA

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA, www.MAweb.org ) is an international project launched by the UN in 2001 and completed in 2005. It was designed to meet the needs of decision makers and the public for scientific information concerning the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and options for responding to those changes. More than 1360 scientists from 100 countries have been involved in the work to synthesize information from the scientific literature, datasets, and scientific models, and to include knowledge held by the private sector, practitioners, local communities and indigenous people.

In 2006, one year after the publication of the reports, the survey of initial impacts of the MA revealed that several institutions, regions, countries and sectors are significantly influenced by the results. Most of them recognize the MA as a helpful instrument to identify priorities for action and to build individual and institutional capacity to undertake integrated ecosystem assessments. The MA also provides tools for planning and management and foresight concerning the consequences of decisions affecting ecosystems. The following question arises: Is the MA used in Belgium?

Publications

Paper copies of the following publications are available upon request to the CBD National Focal Point. Please send an email with your address to CBD-NFP@naturalsciences.be or write to the CBD National Focal Point, RBINS, rue Vautier 29, 1000-Brussels.

	Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Biodiversity Synthesis. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC: 86 pp. (http://www.millenniumassessment.org/proxy/document.354.aspx)
	Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2004) The Ecosystem Approach (CBD   Guidelines). Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal, 50 pp. (http://www.cbd.int/doc/publications/ea-text-en.pdf)
	Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (2007). Cross-roads of Life on Earth — Exploring means to meet the 2010 Biodiversity Target. Solution-oriented scenarios for Global Biodiversity Outlook 2. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal, Technical Series no. 31, 90 pp. (http://www.cbd.int/doc/publications/cbd-ts-31.pdf)
	Federal Public Service for Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment, 2006. Belgium’s National Biodiversity Strategy 2006-2016. Brussels, 106 pp. (http://www.biodiv.be/implementation/docs/stratactplan)