About Us

ABOUT US

'For Science, policy and practice'

The Belgian Biodiversity Platform (BBPf) is a science-policy interface body funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO). It is supported by a Cooperation Agreement between the federal and concerned federated authorities, and universities. Within the field of biodiversity, it acts as a broker between policy, science and practice.

To fight biodiversity loss, different types of stakeholders need to work hand- in-hand, from public authorities to scientists, businesses, citizens, practitioners and many more. The Platform maintains privileged relations with scientists and policymakers, but our strategic partners are not restricted to these two communities. Indeed, science-policy interfacing (SPI) activities encompass broader interactions between knowledge holders and people involved in governance, decision-making and biodiversity management on the ground.

Our Mission

"Decision making on biodiversity issues is grounded on sound evidence and takes place through collaboration between actors"

The Strategic Objectives of the Platform:

Strategic Objective 1: ‘To provide capacity and infrastructures on biodiversity science, policy andpractice

Strategic Objective 2: ‘To facilitate collaboration between regional and federal actors in support ofbiodiversity science-policy interfacing’.

Strategic Objective 3: ‘To catalyse innovative approaches which improve the transdisciplinaryevidence-base on biodiversity’

These three strategic objectives are addressed through three non-mutually exclusive Working Areas to accomplish our mission:

Working Area 1: Knowledge Brokerage

Working Area 2: Foresight and Research Framing

Working Area 3: Open Evidence in support of Decision Making

 

 

OUR VALUES

Holistic thinking

A holistic approach refers to dealing with the whole of something rather than just a part of it. In the context of our work on biodiversity, we aim to look at all levels, drivers, disciplines and sectors related to biodiversity and address them together in a systemic way rather than through silos;

 Transdisciplinarity

We believe that the issues related to biodiversity cannot be solved by a unique discipline and by scientific knowledge alone. By ensuring that biodiversity related issues are looked at from different perspectives including views of relevant stakeholders, by a diversity of disciplines, across different sectors, and by co-creating knowledge in a joint manner, we will be able to solve the challenges our society is currently facing. We can create new conceptual, theoretical, methodological innovations that integrate stakeholders perspectives and move beyond discipline-specific approaches to address the common environmental issues that we are all facing.

Trust

Nurturing trust among the different communities engaged in and/or depending on biodiversity (i.e., various scientific disciplines, policymakers, civil society, managers, private sectors etc.) is crucial. Trust allows for dialogue which leads to common understanding and therefore, to informed decisions at all levels

Open access

Open data, knowledge and science: We believe that open and free access to reliable biodiversity knowledge and data is key in responding to the challenges facing decision-making in terms of biodiversity. Extending the principles of openness to the whole research process entails a systemic change to the way science is done and used in practice, supporting mandatory scientific integrity.

 

OUR MANDATE

Biodiversity is a matter that falls under the competence of several different federated entities in Belgium. Therefore, it is dealt with by several decision-making processes that operate in parallel with a certain level of collaboration between entities. A large part of its management falls under the responsibility of the Regions as the implementation of nature and biodiversity conservation measures within Belgium is inherently territorial. On the other hand, the Federal level is involved in several ways:

• The external dimension of the biodiversity agreements;
• The coordination and preparation of Belgian positions at the international level;
• It has specific competences, such as the import, export and transit of protected
• (CITES) and non-protected exotic species;
• It is also responsible for the protection of the North Sea

To carry out this work, the Platform has at its disposal a distributed team of biodiversity experts, supported by a team of IT experts and a communications officer, under the management of an executive secretary at BELSPO. In accordance with the Cooperation Agreement, the Platform’s biodiversity experts are physically distributed over two Regional host institutes, the Service Public de Wallonie - Département d’Etude du Milieu Naturel et Agricole (SPW-DEMNA) and the Instituut voor Natuur en Bos Onderzoek (INBO) and one Federal host institute, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Science (RBINS). The scientific host Institutions (RBINS, SPW-DEMNA and INBO) are strategically chosen for their capacity to offer the most appropriate working environment for the Platform to fulfil its mandate and the activities.

The Steering Committee is composed of permanent members and observers from the science and environmental fields designated by their respective authorities. The Steering Committee acts as the strategic decision-making body of the Belgian Biodiversity Platform. The members of the Steering Committee are:

		BELSPO (Federal)				INBO (Flanders Region)
		RBINS (Federal)				Departement Omgeving (Flanders Region)
		FPS Environment (Federal)				EWI (Flanders Region)
		InnovIRIS (Brussels Region)				Meise Botanic Garden (Flanders Region)
		Bruxelles Environnement (Brussels Region)				SPW Wallonie (Walloon Region)