Pilot projects for Landscape Quality Improvement

A number of experimental pilot projects are being carried out as part of the Landscape Quality Improvement Programme. The aim is to improve the quality of rural areas.

Current situation

The government intends improving the quality of 400 000 hectares of rural areas, with 10% in future consisting of landscape elements. This will involve both "green" landscape elements, for example wooded banks, shelter belts and graften (steep, narrow strips of wasteland parallel to the contours of a slope and often covered by bushes and trees) and "blue" elements such as brooks, ditches and ponds. Together, these form what are known as the "green and blue arteries".

As part of the preparations for the Landscape Quality Improvement Programme (Kwaliteitsimpuls Landschap), eight areas have been designated as pilot projects (see map). They will be used to allow provinces, municipalities, water boards, agrarian nature conservation organisations, landscape management and recreation organisations, and local nature and environmental associations to experiment with ways of improving the quality of the landscape. The purpose of the pilot projects is to develop policy instruments for the Landscape Quality Improvement Programme. The government intends using the results of the experiments to set up a scheme to implement the Programme. The experiment ends in 2003.

One reason why the quality of the Dutch landscape has declined has been the disappearance of various landscape elements, for example wooded banks, pollarded trees, etc. These elements contribute to the amenity value of the landscape and the ecological significance of rural areas.