Activities

The National Focal Point Biodiversity stimulates the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, by formulating advice to policy makers, by informing, raising awareness and educating, and by promoting collaboration and project on biodiversity.

As a consequence of the division in Belgium of competences related to biodiversity over different entities, one of our key roles is to support the collaboration among different actors involved in biodiversity and related policy (the regions, the federal level, communities, local actors, non-governmental organisations, the private sector, …).

The National Focal Point is part of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, which presents an asset to ensure a science-based foundation of policy. The Museum of Natural Sciences offers a broad information channel to the public at large and to schools.

The National Focal Point works in close collaboration with scientists and several service departments (communication, education, multimedia,..) of the Institute. We in particular collaborate with other teams with which we form the policy support group, such as CEBioS, the team that supports efforts in support of biodiversity of partner countries of the Belgian Cooperation Development, and the Belgian Biodiversity Platform, which focuses on science policy.

Together these teams serve as thematic focal points for:

1) the subsidiary body on scientific, technical and technological affairs of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SBSTTA); this subsidiary advisory body prepares decisions for the Conference of the Parties of the convention
2) the Clearing House Mechanism (CHM), an information exchange network and website
3) the Global Taxonomy Initiative (GTI), in support of taxonomy, the science that describes and classifies species, an indispensible discipline for the conservation of biodiversity
4) the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)