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Biodiversity
Biodiversity
refers to the diversity of living organisms on our planet.
This
diversity is declining dramatically, mainly due to human activities such as
land use change (e.g. deforestation, mono culture and urbanisation), pollution
and climate change. We aspire
to a society in which human beings and nature can coexist in balance, and where
we move from a loss of biodiversity to a gain in biodiversity. That is why
we are taking action to highlight the importance of biodiversity and to slow
down its decline as much as possible.
Our legal actions
01. Appeal for annulment of the Nitrogen Decree
Together
with Bond Beter Leefmilieu and Greenpeace, we have launched a case before the
Constitutional Court to request the partial annulment of the Nitrogen Decree
(Stikstofdecreet).
The Flemish
government failed to base this decree on the latest scientific knowledge. It is
based on outdated data and fails to reduce nitrogen overload quickly enough.
Furthermore,
it pushes the agricultural sector towards intensive livestock farming, to the
detriment of a healthy environment and sustainable income for farmers.
02. The hamster case
Together
with Vogelbescherming Vlaanderen, we launched the Hamster Case against the
Flemish government.
Despite repeated
warnings to policymakers, efforts to prevent the extinction of the hamster
remain systematically insufficient.
Legal
action was therefore the only way to force the authorities to take
responsibility and prevent the disappearance of this protected species. In May
2025, the Flemish government was convicted for the extinction of the wild
hamster. This is the first time in Belgium that a government has been convicted
for the extinction of a species.
03. Appeal against groundwater abstraction
The quantitative situation of groundwater in Flanders has been a cause for concern for years. This is mainly due to an imbalance between groundwater abstraction and recharge.
Following
an appeal lodged by Dryade, the Flemish Council for Permit Disputes referred a
question to the Court of Justice of the European Union for a preliminary ruling
in July 2025. The Council wishes to know whether, for activities that are
'subject to notification', i.e. small-scale activities that do not require a
permit, the effects on nearby natural areas must also be assessed.