The Flemish provinces have indicated corridor areas and areas with ecological infrastructure in their spatial structure plans. These are juridically defined as areas that are important for the migration of fauna and flora between areas of the Flemish Ecological Network or areas with concentrations of small landscape elements. The provinces want to realise ecological corridors here by implementing stimulating measures. To support the provinces in the demarcation processes and the implementation of these areas, a study called “demarcation and planning of connecting areas for nature: layout of a methodological study” was carried out in 2004 to prepare, stimulate and support the provinces in the implementation of the Flemish Spatial Structure Plan. This report is a revised version of that study. In light of this study a discussion forum has been created with representatives of the provinces and regional civil servants. The provinces report on the progress of pilot projects and discuss sticking points and possible solutions here. The first part of this report presents an evidence-based review of the fragmentation problem. Sense and nonsense of corridors are taken into account, ambition and scale levels are determined and an attempt was made to distil rules of thumb for functional design of connecting areas on the basis of best available ecological knowledge. The second part focuses on a method for functional design of connecting areas and the measures that can be used. This report pleads for the design of sufficiently robust, multipurpose habitat networks which incorporate several landscape functions. The presented method joins the characteristics of habitat quality and spatial consistency for a group of policy-relevant species into eco-profiles for corridor areas. These profiles can then be symbolised by a flagship species characterising the group and representing the network message. Within the framework of this study, existing profiles have been brought together. This working method is already applied by the ...