The protection of biodiversity is a global issue and is best tackled through multilateral cooperation. This is underlined by the CBD stressing the need for countries to cooperate in order to ensure the protection of Earth's biodiversity.

The Millennium Development Goals provide the framework for the entire United Nations system to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. Biodiversity plays an important role in ensuring that the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (and in goal 1 ‘Combating poverty and hunger’, Goal 6 ‘Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases’, and goal 7 ‘Ensuring environmental sustainability’) for sustainable development are successfully achieved.

The Clearing-House Mechanism is an important tool for the exchange of information and for promoting and facilitating scientific and technical cooperation.

Belgium has developed interregional and bilateral cooperation with countries in its immediate vicinity for an integrated management of transboundary ecosystems.

Also through its development cooperation, Belgium promotes the sustainability of the environment as a crosscutting issue, in which biodiversity is considered.

Biodiversity loss has direct effects on economic development and especially on the livelihood of people in developing countries. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report (2006) has shown that negative impacts of biodiversity loss and diminution of the benefits arising out of ecosystem services will mainly harm the world's poorest people, who are the least able to adjust to these changes. Intact ecosystems in protected areas provide clean water, food security, and medicine and help prevent natural disasters.

Tackling the loss of biodiversity in those countries will be essential to achieving poverty reduction and sustainable development. Furthermore most developing countries play a crucial role in the conservation of global biodiversity, as they still possess areas with a natural environment and a high biodiversity. All partner countries of Belgian Development Cooperation have also signed the Convention on Biological Diversity as well as many other biodiversity-related agreements. Belgium needs to continue supporting their efforts to respect and implement their commitments under these conventions.

Belgium has already taken some initiatives through its development cooperation policy to improve synergies between MEAs in general and for their synergetic implementation in partner countries.