International agreements

Apart from the CBD, the other two "Rio Conventions" are most important and have their implications for the Biodiversity Convention and biodiversity trends in the world. These are:

• The Climate Change Convention (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change/UNFCCC);
• and the Desertification Convention (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification/UNCCD).

The Netherlands also ratified or is party to the following international conventions and agreements relevant to biodiversity conservation and sustainable use:

• The one on Whaling (International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling) of 1946, which is one of the older conventions;
• Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar Convention), which provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources;
• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) (of 1973), which aims to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival;
• The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS);
• The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (also known as CMS or the Bonn Convention), which aims to conserve terrestrial, marine and avian migratory species throughout their range. It is one of a small number of intergovernmental treaties concerned with the conservation of wildlife and wildlife habitats on a global scale. An important agreement under the Bonn convention, to which the Netherlands is also a party, is the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement;
• The Antarctic Treaty: In The Netherlands the agreement with respect to the Antarctic environment have been elaborated in the law on the protection of Antarctica (in Dutch: Wet bescherming Antarctica). It regulates the issuance of permits for people from the Netherlands that are visiting Antarctica to do research or as tourists. In such permit it says it is not allowed to leave behind any garbage, animals may not be disturbed and the introduction of any non-native animal- and plant species in the area need to be prevented;
• The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources / CCAMLR;
• The UN Forum on Forests (UNFF): In this forum the Members of the UN are aligning their efforts with respect to forests, on the basis of the Convention on Biological Diversity;
• The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO);
• World Heritage Convention which The Netherlands ratified in August 1992. The mission of UNESCO's World Heritage Convention is to:
  • encourage countries to sign the Convention and ensure the protection of their own natural and cultural heritage;
  • encourage States Parties to the Convention to nominate sites within their national territory for inclusion on the World Heritage List;
• International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The objective of the FAO-PGR Undertaking is to ensure the conservation and sustainable utilization of genetic resources for food and agriculture, as well as the fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from their use, for present and future generations. The Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) aims to reach international consensus on areas of global interest, through negotiations;
• The Netherlands furthermore is a member of the de International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and has its own national committee: IUCN NL.

European Biodiversity Agreements

Also within the framework of European cooperation several agreements have been reached about elements of Biodiversity. For example:

• Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention) which aims at ensuring conservation of wild flora and fauna species and their habitats.
• As a member of the European Union, the Netherlands has to comply with the regulations given in the following EC Directives:
  • Birds Directive (79/409/EEC) of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds;
  • Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora;
• Mammals in the North-Eastern part of the Atlantic Ocean (including the North Sea) are protected under the ‘ASCOBANS’-treaty. The Netherlands is party to it. For stranded whales in 2020 a guidelinge was drawn up: Guidance document stranded whales and large tooth whales (in Dutch);
• In addition to the Convention on Biodiversity, the European Union in 2011 adopted the Biodiversity strategy ‘Our life insurance, our natural capital: an EU biodiversity strategy to 2020’. Goals of this communitarian policy were: 1) halting the loss of biodiversity in Europe by 2020; 2) strengthen the Natura 2000 network of protected areas; 3) make sure that societal sectors such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, tourism and trade take care of biodiversity through the principle of ‘No Net Loss’ (compensating for biodiversity loss); 4) restoring 15% of degraded ecosystems within the EU;
• The European Union has drawn up an EU Forest Strategy, which had the prime purpose of establishing sustainable forest management in the entire EU by 2020;
• In 2020 the European commission launched the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 with annexed action plan. This strategy covers four main themes: 1) A coherent network of protected areas; 2) An EU Nature Restoration Plan: restoring ecosystems across land and sea; 3) Enabling transformative change; 4) The European Union for an ambitious global biodiversity agenda.