Clearing House Mechanism
Belgian partnering role for the Clearing-House Mechanism
All parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity have the legal obligation to develop national activities for the Clearing-House Mechanism (CHM, see Article 18.3 of the Convention). This mechanism aims at spreading national information on biodiversity and at encouraging scientific and technical cooperation between countries, via the transfer of technologies and more generally by facilitating the access to information.
According to the idea of partnering role supported by the CBD Secretariat, Belgium's activities include the organisation of training sessions for webmasters of CHM and/or BCH websites and of (sub-)regional workshops or seminars on the CHM, the provision of technical support for the initiation and/or follow-up of websites, the hosting of national and/or mirror CHM websites, the development of initiatives for the transfer of technologies and the dissemination of information and facilitation of the access to information.
The partnering role of the Belgian CHM is made possible through a specific convention between the Belgian Directorate General for Development Cooperation (DGDC) and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), in its function of CBD/CHM National Focal Point.
