Dutch ‘Coalition Biodiversity 2010’ on the occasion of the Year of Biodiversity
The United Nations proclaimed the International Year of Biodiversity 2010 during 2010 all countries gave extra attention to biodiversity.
The Netherlands joined in too. A coalition of government bodies, civil society organizations, and businesses was established which together took the lead in communication on biodiversity: Coalitie Biodiversiteit 2010 (Coalition on Biodiversity 2010). Around a nucleus of key partners a group of over 200 organizations was gathered (list, governance model and criteria; in Dutch).
Many activities took place throughout the year, starting off with a meeting on the 28th of January in which also the Dutch Centre for Biodiversity (NCB Naturalis) was launched and that was also attended by the then ministers Plasterk (OCW) en Verburg (LNV). See also press release (in Dutch).
Launch event
The Coalition took off on 4 November 2009 at an event called Hoogste tijd voor Biodiversiteit. (High Time for Biodiversity; see agenda in Dutch).
Further reading (in Dutch):
- Presentation ‘Biodiversity: from dream to action plan’
- Presentation ‘Amersfoort in the breach for biodiversity’
- Breakout Session 1 Biodiversity improves the environment
- Breakout Session 2 Biodiversity connects people
- Breakout Session 3 Biodiversity tastes good from the field to the table
- Breakout Session 4 Biodiversity works for water, climate and energy
Investing in healthy ecosystems makes economic sense (Conference)
Following the release of the TEEB’s policy makers report entitled “The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity”, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment organised a conference on 20 April 2010 on the theme “Investing in healthy ecosystems makes economic sense”.
The guest speakers were:
- Patrick ten Brink, co-ordinator of the TEEB for Policy Makers report and Head of the Institute for European Environmental Policy’s Brussels Office
- Jetske Bouma, researcher at the Institute for Environmental Studies at the VU University Amsterdam
Activities in 2010
During the whole year of 2010, special attention was paid to what opportunities biodiversity presents to people and their environment, how people can make maximum use of these opportunities, and why biodiversity is of vital importance for them.
The coalition and its partners organized numerous activities and events. Some of them with financial support from the government. Also they provide educational products.
A specific website was dedicated to displaying all these activities and products (also via a map of the Netherlands).
On 4 januari 2011 Rosa Draaisma en Hanna van de Wetering wrote a report in a Dutch newspaper about the activities of the Coalition in 2010
News archive
During the year 2010 (and also still in 2011 and 2012) the secretariat of the Coalition Biodiversity regularly published news items (in Dutch). These have been archived here.