Guidance Designation and acquisition of nature areas

• Aquisition of land and management agreements: targets and progress
• Designation of the National Ecological Network (terrestrial)
• Size of areas in the National Ecological Network (terrestrial)
• New nature areas in Strategic Green Space projects
• Provincial area plans
• Aquisition of land for new nature areas per province
• Land prices for nature areas and agricultural use: national trends
• Land prices for various types of nature area

Introduction:

The National Ecological Network (Ecologische Hoofdstructuur, EHS) is the most important element in Dutch nature policy. It is intended to be a continuous network of high-quality nature areas. The Green Space Structure Plan (Structuurschema Groene Ruimte) broadly indicates the overall ("gross") EHS. The provinces then indicate in their area plans just which areas will actually make up the "net" EHS. This way of defining the EHS involves both existing and new nature areas. The way the EHS is currently defined by the provinces means that the nature areas that make it up are still fragmented to a certain extent.

The EHS is being created, on the one hand, by purchasing land which is redeveloped and then transferred to management organisations.Some of the EHS is also created by means of agrarian nature management within specified management areas. Strategic green space projects are intended to quickly create new nature areas, recreation areas and woodland/forest in certain areas.

Between 40% and 55% of the work involved in acquiring the land and concluding management agreements for nature development, woodland and scenic areas has now been completed. There are, however, major differences in the progress made by the individual provinces.

Land prices have risen sharply in recent years; land that is to be devoted to creating buffer zones around nature areas is particularly expensive. The coalition agreement drawn up by the cabinet led by Jan Peter Balkenende reduced the size of the budget for the purchase of land for nature areas. In a submission to Parliament (DN 2002/3026, 9 October 2002), the Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality stated that purchases of robust nature links, nature reserves and nature development areas would be cut by an average of 50%. Furthermore, existing nature areas, forest and woodland, and country estates would basically no longer be purchased but efforts would be made to encourage much more private and agrarian nature management. Because these policy changes are still under discussion, the targets for land acquisition and management agreements have not been adjusted in the indicators in this section.