Introduction 2014: the first year of the new strategy 2014-2023 The year 2014 is the first year of the new strategy 2014-2023 and the new work programme of the first 5 year plan 2014-2018. It is also the first year starting on 1 January and ending on 31 December, instead of the period April-March. The 2013 programme helped facilitating the transition towards the new vision inscribed in the coming ten year strategy for 2014-2023. The year 2014 is earmarked with a budget of 1,105,683 €. As in previous years, we will continue our training, networking and institutional strengthening activities on biodiversity and sustainable development. We will also strive to bring about changes in mind-sets, in RBINS and our partners, to integrate the guiding principles of the new five year framework programme for 2014-2018, such as more result-based management, a more explicit link to ecosystem services and poverty reduction and sustainable development inscribed in the Belgian development cooperation. For example, formulation missions are planned in 2014 for the institutional cooperation with Bénin and Burundi and eventually Peru. Concerning DR Congo, the cooperation with the ICCN and the national CHM will be strengthened in cooperation with local universities, and we intend to participate in the conference of the ‘Centre de Surveillance de la Biodiversité’ (CSB), organised in June 2014 in Kisangani (RD Congo), on condition of sufficient security. These are good occasions for the new coordinator to get acquainted with the programme in the field. As the world celebrated last year the 20 years of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Rio Earth Summit (Rio+20, June 2012), it is clear that the longstanding challenges remain unabated. Although some poverty indicators show improvement, the positive evolution has been unequal and insufficient. Backed by scientific knowledge, we are convinced that both phenomena, poverty and biodiversity loss, are closely linked and both need to be addressed jointly. By doing so, we strive at being recognised as a centre of excellence in this field. The year 2014 will certainly see a surge in the global preparations for the formulation of the post 2015 Millennium development goals (MDGs) into the Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs), taking into account the lessons learned for formulating new goals. In 2014, as in previous years, it is our intention to contribute to the reduction of poverty and to ensure a sustainable economic and social development within the partner countries of the Belgian cooperation by meeting new targets for the conservation of biodiversity and the safeguarding of the ecosystem services it delivers. The new programme components defined and presented in the new ten year strategy 2014-2023, will be implemented from this year onwards. Six specific objectives are programmed: 1. To strengthen the scientific and technical knowledge base on biodiversity and on its linkages with ecosystem services and poverty reduction. This specific objective includes the interventions under the 8 Global Taxonomy Initiative (GTI) and the biodiversity inventories, monitoring and assessments’ (IMAB); 2. To enhance the information base on these issues and on associated governance processes. This includes information networks (Clearing House Mechanism (CHM)); 3. To raise awareness and communicate on the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem services for poverty reduction and sustainable development, and on associated governance processes. This component is new. This specific objective was formerly part of the component involving the work on the CHM, but now was created with a separate budget line, given its priority in the strategy. 4. To improve the mainstreaming of biodiversity and ecosystem services in policy sectors that have a high relevance for development. This component includes both the participation to scientific, technical and political processes, as well as providing training to different stakeholders in Belgium and in a latter stadium in the South (e.g. NGOs, embassies, BTC). 5. To improve the knowledge on the measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of policy choices and activities linked to biodiversity and ecosystem services. This component is new as well and needs to be further worked out. One important feature will be to make the link between scientific knowledge and the development of national indicators in developing countries, both for their own National Biodiversity Strategic plans as their national Biodiversity Reports. 6. To raise awareness on, and build capacities for, the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing. This component is new and will gain momentum with increasing pressure for the parties to sign and ratify the Protocol. The stand of countries having ratified this treaty in February 2014 stays at 29 parties, all developing countries, plus Norway. The EU will ratify in one movement at the end of 2014. Most of the former activities under the GTI and CHM will be consolidated, by focusing primarily on existing partnerships and projects. IMAB activities will be increased through the consolidation of the partnership with the ‘Institut National pour l’Environnement et la Conservation de la Nature’ (INECN) in Burundi and the launching of a new partnership with Benin with the ‘Université Calavi-Abomey’ which will try to provide answers to questions about conservation of biodiversity and management of bush fire and pastoralism asked by the ‘Centre National de Gestion des Réserves de Faune (CENAGREF)’. These two partnerships will give more opportunities for the integration of an ‘ecosystem services’ angle to research activities. Our scientific support to policy issues will continue and intensify. We will devote time, through intense collaboration with D2.4, for the identification and preparation of activities aiming at the enhanced mainstreaming of biodiversity issues in the Belgian Development Cooperation. In the year 2014, one WIGRI meeting is programmed, as well as SBSTTA 18 and COP 12. Staff will attend as much as possible to these meetings as part of the Belgian delegation and in order to be informed on and influence the national and global agendas. Other working groups or platforms will also retain the necessary attention such as the ENVIRONET initiative of the OECD-DAC, the SDSN network and the working group on the Dehadrun-Chennai recommendations on the link biodiversity-poverty reduction organised by the CBD secretariat. A new scientist should be recruited at the beginning of 2014 in order to support the implementation of all specific objectives and more specifically the specific objectives 3, 5 and 6 (see above). Moreover, the DGD-unit plans to produce its own website in order to increase its visibility and 9 transparency. Within RBINS, the DGD-RBINS programme will seek to embed its strategy in the strategic action plan of the newly created operational direction ‘Nature’, an dactively participate in the newly created policy support group ‘BIOPOLS’, grouping the DGD-RBINS programme, the National Focal Point on Biological Diversity, the Belgian Platform for Biodiversity and Marine policy. Obviously, the 20 Aichi targets set out at COP10 remain the main framework for the implementation of our strategy until 2020. The first annex of the present document presents the logical framework for the period 2014-2018. The second annex presents the operational plans for each of the components for the year 2014. The budget is outlined on pg 10. Concerning he structure of the present document, after the programme overview, the budget and a list of partners, each of the 6 specific objectives is described in detail. The logframe (complete, see annex 1) is for five years, but the activities for the year 2014 are explained in the narrative