A report of an eight week Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowship
The Netherlands
General Farming
The Netherlands is a wealthy country with a strong agricultural tradition. It is the third largest exporter of agricultural produce in the world, lying behind France and the United States of America. This is quite an achievement considering it is one of the lowest lying countries in the world, with over half the land below sea level. Much of the coastline fringed with sand dunes; whilst inland there are large areas of land reclaimed from the sea to form fertile polders where intensive dairying and arable is undertaken.
The Netherlands is the most densely populated country in Europe, both in terms of human and livestock populations. As a consequence of this, there have been some very serious problems with nitrate pollution; something which is now in the process of being addressed. Like the other EU countries, farmers are supported through a complex system of payment, mainly for production. However, payments for extensification (ie having less animals over a wider area) are directly related to nitrate balancing. Farmers are effectively required to balance nitrate inputs with outputs; only being allowed to lose "x" amount of nitrate per hectare per annum.
The Netherlands population is very urban and there is a strong conservation lobby. Hunting and shooting are very tightly restricted.
Government Structure
Government departmental structure is such that there is a "Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Food Quality" which develops, and oversees implementation of, the nature conservation policy of the Netherlands. The actual implementation of the policy is undertaken by subsidiary bodies such as the "Rural Land Service" (Dienst Landelijk Gebied) and the General Inspection Service (Algemene Inspectiedienst).
Conservation Legislation
The Netherlands was one of the six founders of the European Community from which the European Union has evolved and its policies for agriculture and nature conservation are determined by what has been agreed at a European and global level. The Netherlands is very successful in its implementation of European conservation legislation, as highlighted on the European Commission's Environment web pages (click for info). However, the Netherlands' approach to the protection of nature conservation sites is very different to that taken in France or the UK.
The Netherlands' government have had a policy of purchasing very wet grassland areas in order to pass them to both non-governmental and governmental organisations with the primary objective to manage the sites for wildlife conservation. The Dutch are probably able to take this approach because they have relocated farmers to more productive agricultural areas within new polders. The fact that most of the country has been reclaimed from the sea at some stage in it history may mean that the Dutch have a slightly different cultural link with the land than that of the French or the English. Whatever, the Netherlands is very pragmatic and highly effective in managing the wildlife sites which currently account for 11% of the land area.
The organisations responsible for managing wildlife sites appear to have been very successful at doing so. However, many farmers are still involved in grazing and haying conservation lands under licence, valuing the land for two key reasons. Firstly, they believe that the hay makes an important animal health supplement to high protein and silage feed systems. Secondly, the land is required for a farm extensification payments system as previously mentioned; based on balancing Nitrate inputs and outputs across the whole farm.
Agri-Environment Schemes
Agri-environment scheme payments are available to syndicated groups of farmers. I visited one such scheme in an area where farmers are paid to protect landscape features and provide public access. The farmer who was a part of an agri-environment syndicate was not intensive by Dutch standards; and the landscape was attractive with fields bounded by trees and old hedge banks; however, the land was not rich in wildlife. Dutch farmers feel that they could be more involved in managing important wetland wildlife sites and in some areas they are lobbying to this effect.
National Ecological Network
As previously mentioned, currently 11% of the Netherlands' land surface is managed for nature conservation. As previously highlighted, the areas outside of the "special sites" are generally intensively farmed and poor in terms of wildlife. However, the Netherlands' government has very ambitious plans to create a "man made" landscape that is fully integrated with wildlife. The aim is to develop a coherent "national ecological network" including forests, grassland used by breeding birds and areas for passage of large herbivores. A map has been produced, zoning the areas which, at the time of writing, are to be targeted (click for map).