Flanders' impact on global biodiversity
A new set of indicators highlights Flanders' impact on biodiversity both within and beyond our borders. Together, they show that Flemish consumption and production patterns far exceed Flanders' carrying capacity. Some 80% of the biomass we need to support our production and consumption pattern comes from abroad.
- To produce that biomass, we annually use 12 times more land than we have available in the whole of Flanders.
- In doing so, we cause much higher losses of unique plant and animal species abroad than in Flanders itself: almost 98% of the species loss caused by our Flemish economy takes place outside our regional borders.
- In addition, every seven to eight years our Flemish consumption and production pattern makes an area of forest disappear that is as large as the entire Flemish forest area, and that in the tropics and subtropics alone.
- In the same region, our economy also causes peat bogs to dry up. The carbon emissions we cause annually from deforestation and drainage of peatlands in the tropics and subtropics amount to some 12 to 13 times the annual carbon storage by forest in Flanders.
The indicators are based on the same basic economic model. That establishes links between our economy and environmental impact in different countries using financial flows. The indicators give a first, rough idea of our cross-border impact on biodiversity. In each case, they show different facets of biodiversity loss to which Flemish, federal and European policies can respond.
Image above: deforestation in Brazil (Shutterstock)
>> To the indicators - webpages in Dutch:
- Footprint biomass use - general
- Biomass use footprint - countries and sectors
- Footprint land use and biodiversity - general
- Footprint land use and biodiversity - countries and sectors
- Footprint deforestation and carbon emissions in the (sub)tropics - general
- Footprint deforestation and carbon emissions in (sub)tropics - countries and sectors