The Convention on Biological Diversity has critically increased the awareness of the general lack of knowledge about the world biodiversity, especially the marine biodiversity. On the other hand, the implementation of the Madrid Protocol on Environmental Protection of the Antarctic requires a more comprehensive knowledge of Antarctic marine biodiversity and a better accessibility to the widely scattered biodiversity information. Current research programmes in Antarctic biology focussed in particular on the structure and dynamics of coastal and shelf ecosystems in the perspective of global changes (SCAR-EASIZ), and on the biodiversity of the totally unknown deep-sea habitats (ANDEEP).
BE/BIANZO
BELGIUM