Strategic Plan for Biodiversity
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, is one of the key agreements on a comprehensive strategy for sustainable development. The Convention has 193 Parties and three main goals:
- the conservation of biological diversity,
- the sustainable use of its components, and
- the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources.
The overarching implementation framework is the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 adopted at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) held in October 2010, in Nagoya, Japan.
The CBD was negotiated under the guidance of the United Nations. It was signed by more than 150 government leaders at the Rio Earth Summit (which official denomination is the 'United Nations Conference on Environment and Development'). The Convention is now one of the most widely ratified international treaties on environmental issues, with 194 member countries.
Unlike other international agreements that set compulsory targets and obligations, the CBD takes a flexible approach to implementation. It identifies general goals and policies, and countries are free to determine how they want to implement them.
One of the CBD's greatest achievements so far has been to generate an enormous amount of interest in biodiversity, both in developed and developing countries. Biodiversity is now seen as a critically important environment and development issue.
If you are interested to know how Belgium implements the Convention on Biological Diversity, please navigate our our section on 'Implementation', where you will find information on the ratification process, the authorities in charge, the legislation, the main documents and reports produced for the Convention, and much more.
Additional information on the Convention can be found on the CBD website.
