The IUCN Belgian Members Day was a truly successful event both in attendance and uptake. We were delighted to see so much interest in the work of IUCN at the Belgian level, European and global levels. Going forward we will continue our efforts at the IUCN Belgian focal point to keep members and stakeholders engaged.

Speaker presentations are now available for download on the event website. If would like more information on a specific slide or reference please let us know.

Please see below for useful information regarding the meeting and future opportunities to engage with the Belgian Focal point:

• IUCN Members Meeting, Yerevan, Oct 16-18
• UK National Committee Conservation Webinars
• IUCN Commissions

For more information, please contact Divija Jata, Operational Coordinator for the Belgian Biodiversity Platform

1. Understand zoonotic risks and activities
2. Reduction of risks
3. Strengthening early-warning system
4. Organizing surveillance and early detection

The Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission (DG SANTE) is organising the High-level conference “One Health for All, All for One Health” on 13 November 2023, from 09:00 to 17:45, at the European Convention Centre LUXEMBOURG. The event will also be web-streamed on the European Commission’s Event website.

Under the impression of the COVID-19 pandemic and recent zoonotic epidemics, the rising silent pandemic of antimicrobial resistance, and the increasing impact of climate change on all living beings and on our environment, it is timely to take stock and to bring together relevant policy-makers, stakeholders and experts from within and outside Europe to discuss the future of ‘One Health’.

Let’s identify together the most promising, effective and pragmatic ‘One Health’ actions to address current and forthcoming challenges!

Please save the date, we look forward to your participation. Details on how to register and other relevant information and weblinks will follow in the course of June. In the meantime, you may already check out the European Commission’s One Health webpage here.

For more information on One Health related news, please contact Dominique Vandekerchove, One Health Expert at the Belgian Biodiversity Platform.

On the occasion of the International Day of Biodiversity, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) released "Onze natuur is goud waard","Une nature qui vaut de l'or". This report sheds light on the urgent need for Belgium to allocate significantly more funding towards realizing its biodiversity ambitions. Experts, including Sonia Vanderhoeven from the Belgian Biodiversity Platform, contribute their knowledge and skills towards the writing of this report.

Belgium, like many other countries, faces a substantial gap between its aspirations and concrete actions when it comes to preserving biodiversity. WWF-Belgium has quantified this gap at a staggering €603 million per year. This substantial funding deficit impedes the country's ability to effectively address the challenges posed by biodiversity loss and to fulfill its commitments in this crucial area.

"Onze Natuur" underscores the pressing need for increased financial investments to bridge the gap between ambition and action. The report highlights the remarkable value of Belgium's natural heritage and emphasizes the importance of safeguarding it for future generations. By investing more in biodiversity conservation, Belgium can create tangible positive outcomes for both nature and society.

The findings of "Onze Natuur" serve as a call to action for policymakers, stakeholders, and citizens alike. It urges the Belgian government to allocate the necessary resources to fulfill its biodiversity commitments and make a substantial positive impact on the state of nature within the country. Furthermore, the report encourages engagement and collaboration across sectors to ensure the effective implementation of nature conservation measures.

For more information on, please contact Sonia Vanderhoeven, Science Officer at the Belgian Biodiversity Platform.

The Belgian National Focal Point to the CBD has released Political Monitoring: Biodiversity politics in Belgian parliaments for April 2023.

The political monitoring by the Belgian National Focal Point to the Convention on Biological Diversity is carried out on a periodic basis, with the goal of informing about political processes related to biodiversity in Belgium and the EU: the Chamber, the Senate, the Walloon Parliament, the Parliament of the Walloon-Brussels federation, the Flemish Parliament, the Brussels Parliament and the EU Parliament. An overview of topics discussed in the two most recent monitorings is provided below, together with pdf versions of the monitoring documents that include links to reports of the discussions. Pdf copies of older political monitorings can be found under the files list on the right.

For more information, please contact Leendert Plaetinck, Communication Officer for the Belgian Biodiversity Platform

The CETAF-DEST Training course “Digitisation of Natural History collections: From data quality to cleaning and data publishing. A hands-on experience” will target the basic and important steps and standards of the digitisation process of all biological, geological, palaeontological & mineralogical data of the natural history collections. These are:

• Data quality for ensuring the maximum quality when digitising taxonomic, geographical, collection and descriptive data/
• Data cleaning in order to improve the quality of data and make them “fit-for-use” 
• The data visualisation focusing in applying visualisation techniques in clean data.
• Biodiversity Data Standards, such as Darwin Core
• ABCDEFG Standards which give access to Biological Collection Databases extended for Geosciences.
• Publishing of data using the IPT for the biological data and the GeoCASe platform for the geological, palaeontological & mineralogical data.
• The types of Data Sets convenient for publication in GeoCASe platform.

The course will be a 5 days ’hands-on experience. Trainees will have the possibility to bring sample(s) of their institutional biodiversity and geodiversity digital database and exercise on them.

more info and application
registration deadline: June 20th

For more information on CETAF related news, please contact Dimitri Brosens, GBIF Node Manager Belgium at the Belgian Biodiversity Platform.

On behalf of the network of national participants, the GBIF Secretariat is pleased to invite nominations for the 2023 Graduate Researchers Award. This annual programme aims to foster and recognize innovative research and discovery in biodiversity informatics by graduate students whose master’s and doctoral studies rely on GBIF-mediated data.

The 2023 programme will provide a pair of prizes worth €5,000 recognizing the work of two early-career researchers—preferably, one master’s and one PhD candidate—who will receive formal nominations from the heads of delegation or node managers of GBIF Participant countries.

A jury organized by the GBIF Science Committee will select two award recipients from the pool of nominees whose names are received by the GBIF Secretariat by 19 June 2023. The GBIF Secretariat will announce winners in early fall 2023 and present the winners at the 30th meeting of the GBIF Governing Board (GB30) planned for Canberra, Australia, in October 2023.

Call for nominations

For more information on GBIF related news, please contact Dimitri Brosens, GBIF Node Manager Belgium at the Belgian Biodiversity Platform.