Biodiversity in Brussels

“Biodiversity and Rural Development in ACP countries” was the theme for this briefing, which focused on the key role biodiversity plays in rural development, especially in ACP countries, and issues such as the relationship between poverty and biodiversity, the effects of biodiversity loss in hunger and food insecurity, governance and legislation at the national, regional and global levels. Brussels Development Briefings are organised by the ACP-EU technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation on key issues and challenges for rural development in the context of EU/ACP cooperation.

In his presentation, Prof. Dr. René Boot highlighted that good forest management practices associated with forest certification appear to benefit biodiversity in managed forests. Biodiversity conservation in production forests requires clear goals, locally negotiated between the local, national and international stakeholders of good forest management. He stressed the importanceof international enabling action promoting market driven initiatives such as forest certification, and combating illegal logging as provided by the EU FLEGT initiative, as vital steps towards achieving biodiversity conservation in managed tropical forests.