Eurocommissaris Dimas opent Belgisch nationaal park "Hoge Kempen" (en)

SPEECH/06/192

Stavros Dimas

Member of the European Commission, Responsible for Environment

Opening of the Flemish National Park "Hoge Kempen"

Genk, 23 March 2006

Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honour and a pleasure for me, as European Commissioner for the Environment, to participate in this ceremony to mark the opening of Belgium's first national park.

Though densely populated, this country has a particularly rich natural heritage consisting of more than 40,000 indigenous plant and animal species. You also have many habitat types of European interest, including estuaries, coastal dunes, heath lands, bogs, woods and grasslands. I am glad to say that large parts of these have been included in the EU's Natura 2000 network of protected areas.

The Hoge Kempen is one of the most precious jewels in Belgium's extensive natural heritage. It is my hope that designating it as a national park will help to raise public awareness of your country's sometimes forgotten treasures. Most importantly however, your decision to establish this park will contribute to preventing the loss of biodiversity.

Biodiversity loss - the technical term we use for what is actually the extinction of species - is continuing at alarming rates, both in the EU and globally. This loss of nature is steadily weakening the intricate web of life on which we all depend. Together with climate change, it is one of the most serious challenges mankind is facing. We are in danger of undermining the Earth's life support systems to the point where one day they could collapse.

The European Union has taken a strong position in order to stop this trend. The EU's leaders have committed themselves to halting the loss of biodiversity in Europe by 2010. The Commission has been encouraging Member States and civil society to develop their own priorities for achieving this objective. And in the next few months I will be presenting a Commission policy statement on biodiversity containing an Action Plan for the period to 2010 and beyond.

The EU is also playing a major role in protecting biodiversity at the international level. Next week I will be taking part in the UN Biodiversity Convention in Brazil. One of the key issues on the agenda is the role of protected areas and against this context I am particularly happy to be associated with today's event which demonstrates how the EU and its Member States can translate their political commitments into real action on the ground.

The cornerstone of the EU approach is Natura 2000 which is now the world's largest network of protected areas. Effectively implementing Natura 2000 will be the major contribution from Member States to halting biodiversity decline.

The 15 older EU Member States have designated more than 15,000 sites covering 18% of their land area. Natura 2000 is also being progressively extended to the new Member States, where we expect roughly the same proportion of land to be designated as protected areas. All Member States are in the process of giving legal protection status to their sites and developing management plans for them.

Let me just take this opportunity to correct the impression some people have that Natura 2000 sites are strict nature reserves where economic activity is prohibited. This is not the case at all. On the contrary, they are areas with a particularly rich natural heritage where sustainable economic development is allowed - and is even promoted. Once this is properly understood, I am sure that Natura 2000 sites will be more widely recognised as real assets rather than criticised as a potential hindrance to development.

The Hoge Kempen National Park will join thousands of other sites in the network in demonstrating that nature conservation goes hand in glove with rural development. Your national park will help to safeguard a beautiful landscape and exceptionally rich biodiversity in the heart of a densely populated frontier region. At the same time, it has the potential to attract thousands of visitors a year who will contribute extra revenue to the area's economy.

I would like to offer my congratulations for this excellent initiative to the competent authorities, at both Federal and Regional level, as well as to the authorities from the Province of Limburg and the six communes involved and the association Regionaal Landschap Kempen en Maasland.

I wish this jewel of Belgium's natural heritage every success as it begins its new life as the Hoge Kempen National Park.

Thank you.