Convention on biological diversity : Sixth national report of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Summary

The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Most of the country’s land area is highly productive agricultural land. There is little or no area of natural ecosystem that could be called pristine,although high biodiversity values are certainly found. TheKingdom of the Netherlands also comprises six Caribbeanislands with, among other things, tropical rainforests,mangrove forests and coral reefs. The main cause of the long-term decline biodiversity has been the intensification of agricultural production, including the reclamation of semi-natural areas, the drainage of wet areas, the use of artificial fertilizer, etc. But also unsustainable fishing,pollution, overgrazing, climate change and invasive alien species cause a decline in biodiversity. To reverse this decline, the Netherlands has prepared and implemented action plans and targets for biodiversity since 1990. This report presents the most important efforts to achieve the biodiversity targets.