Belgium, through its development cooperation policy, will promote and support participatory income-generating activities that are based on the sustainable use of biodiversity and that benefit local populations. In particular the role of farmers as actors for biodiversity protection through implementation of good farming practices and technologies should be encouraged and supported by Belgian development cooperation.

The Belgian DC will also support, on a sustainable way, other biodiversity-based income-generating activities or mechanisms with a potential of local benefits, such as ecotourism, community-managed hunting, fishing and gathering, and maintenance of ecosystem services with collective benefits.

Biosafety capacity building projects, aimed at helping in various ways developing countries to avoid potential negative impacts of GMOs on biodiversity and health, will also be undertaken by Belgian development cooperation policy.

Through policy dialogues with partner countries and other donors, Belgium will also seek to enhance the promotion of access rights, property rights and shared responsibility of indigenous and local communities on biodiversity assets. This policy dialogue will be carried out in accordance with existing international agreements and processes.

The creation of an enabling environment for biodiversity in partner countries needs to be based on their national priorities. However, with due regard for the global Aichi Targets, it is also important that key areas for biodiversity are supported. In particular protected areas, forests and the marine environment have been frequently highlighted as priorities by partner countries during bilateral and multilateral discussions.

Specific attention needs also to be given in development cooperation policy to the establishment of a worldwide representative network of protected areas. National Protected area programmes are the base for achieving numerous Aichi targets in a sustainable way. Protected areas have been in place for many decades; however, their management has not always been as optimal as it might in terms of stopping the loss of biodiversity by 2020. To ensure that the existing and additional to be created protected areas support the implementation of the CBD, Belgium will, based on demands of the partner countries and their national priorities, in its bilateral and multilateral efforts, actively promote the development of National Protected area programmes and the integration of different policy instruments to enhance coordination and coherence of policies aimed at the national protected areas and their biodiversity.

Biodiversity in forests is the richest of all terrestrial ecosystems. Along with the protection of forest areas of high conservation value, Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) will play a crucial role in stopping the loss of biodiversity by 2020. There is an urgent need to enhance the conservation of forest biodiversity by improving forest management and planning practices that incorporate socio-economic and cultural values.

Many wood-producing countries need financial, technical and legislative assistance to prepare and implement national forest programmes for the management, conservation and sustainable development of forests, develop good governance practices, review and implement forest related regulations, tenure and planning systems, promote transparency, combat corruption and strengthen civil society involvement, to provide a basis for sustainable use of forest biodiversity.

National Forest Programmes (NFPs) for the management, conservation and sustainable development of forests are understood as country-led, broadly participative processes to formulate and implement policies and instruments that effectively promote the development of the sector in the context of broader policies and strategies for sustainable development. The goal of NFPs is to promote the conservation and sustainable use of forest resources to meet local, national and global needs, through fostering national and international partnerships to manage, protect and restore forest resources and land, for the benefit of present and future generations. The main objectives are to:

-    introduce intersectoral planning approaches involving all relevant partners, in order to resolve conflicts and generate effective policies and programmes to address problems;

-    raise awareness and mobilise commitments at all levels in order to address the issues related to sustainable forestry development;

-    increase the efficiency and effectiveness of both public and private actions for sustainable forestry development;

-    foster local, national, regional and international partnerships;

-    mobilise and organise national and (if necessary) international resources and catalyse action to implement programmes/plans in a coordinated manner;

-    plan and implement how forests and the forestry sector could contribute to national and global initiatives, for example the Environmental Action Plans and the actions agreed upon to implement the Forest Principles, Chapter 11 of Agenda 21, the Conventions on Biodiversity, on Climate Change and on Desertification.

In its bilateral and multilateral efforts, Belgium will actively promote the development of national forestry programmes and the integration of different policy instruments to enhance coordination and coherence of policies aimed at the promotion of sustainable forest management and the conservation and sustainable use of forest biological diversity.

Today, integrated coastal management (ICM), also known as integrated coastal zone management (ICZM), has become the preferred approach to sustainable development and resource use of coastal areas. Given the dependence of many developing countries on the marine environment for food security, supporting integrated coastal and marine programmes will largely benefit both the partner countries and biodiversity. It will be important to support the partner country to develop the necessary knowledge and capacity (including of the relevant institutions) in order to create the enabling environment to integrate concerns for marine and coastal biodiversity into the relevant sectoral plans.

In its bilateral and multilateral efforts, Belgium will, based on demands of the partner countries and their national priorities, actively promote the development of ICZM to support the partner countries in enhancing coordination and coherence of policies aimed at the conservation and sustainable use of coastal and marine biodiversity.