From land acquisition to private nature management: ex ante evaluation of a change in Netherlands' nature policy - Summary
Introduction: realising a National Ecological Network
Since 1990, the Dutch government has had a policy designed to establish a coherent system of nature reserves: the National Ecological Network (NEN). After the agricultural land improvements in the second half of the last century, Dutch nature reserves were in a degraded state and much biodiversity had been lost. Nature reserves were isolated and surrounded by intensively used agricultural land; water tables were low, and water and environmental quality poor. The Nature Conservation Policy Plan, aimed at keeping Dutch biodiversity in a sustainable state and improving it, is to connect and enlarge the isolated nature reserves into a National Ecological Network by developing new nature reserves in the agricultural areas. The intention is to realise the completion of the National Ecological Network by 2018. By that time, 180,000 hectares of agricultural land will have been converted into new nature reserves, and the complete NEN will cover 730,000 hectares on the land.
The 'turnabout' in implementation policy
An important component of the NEN policy is to develop ‘new nature areas’ by giving a nature conservation function to 180,000 hectares of agricultural land. The original intention was to have the government purchase this land to pass on to official nature conservation organisations. However, under policy changes made in the past ten years, the intention is to have more than a quarter of the 180,000 hectares managed by farmers or private landowners. This change in policy is called the ’turnabout.’ Its aim to expand the role of farmers and private landowners in nature conservation, subject to the conditions that the costs should not exceed those for land acquisition, and that the same ecological results should be achieved.
Evaluation: the shift from land acquisition to management
The central question in this ex-ante evaluation is how has the turnabout (‘less acquisition for nature conservation organisations and more management by private landowners and farmers’) been implemented in practice, and what does this indicate about the likelihood that this turnabout will succeed? The MNP has evaluated the turnabout in conservation policy on the basis of three criteria:
- The willingness of private landowners to participate in nature conservation
- The costs for the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit; LNV)
- The ecological effects of the ‘management’ (non-purchasing) part of the policy.
Private nature conservation (in which agricultural land is transformed into nature reserves) and agricultural nature conservation have been compared to management by official nature conservation organisations such as the Dutch National Forest Service (Staatsbosbeheer), the Dutch Society for the Preservation of Nature (Natuurmonumenten) and Dutch provincial Nature Conservation Organisations (Provinciale Landschappen).
Conclusion: current policy is insufficient
An evaluation of the policy process following the turnabout by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (MNP) has shown that the aim of the turnabout will not be achieved if policy remains in its current form.
Too little interest in current scheme
The most important bottleneck in the development of nature conservation under the new turnabout policy is the scant willingness of farmers and other private landowners to participate. The underlying causes of the low participation are mainly micro-economic considerations and a lack of information. One way of increasing participation would be to actively approach potential participants individually. However, this would greatly increase the implementation costs per hectare.
Better location of resources would be ecologically more effective
In agricultural nature conservation, achieving the ecological results and desired biodiversity is a particular problem. Raising the annual subsidies for loss of income (for the farmer engaging in agricultural nature conservation) and reimbursing nature development costs may reduce this problem. But a prerequisite is that favourable locations need to be found: locations with a high ecological potential, where the necessary measures for nature development and for on-going management for nature conservation purposes can be fitted into current agricultural operations.
