Nowhere in the Netherlands has so much agricultural land been added in the past ten years as in Friesland, CBS recently reported. At the same time, a large area of nature reserve disappeared, but is this correct? The LC looked into it.
There was great surprise when CBS recently reported that Friesland has gained 15 square kilometers of agricultural land in the past ten years and lost 44 square kilometers of nature. That is approximately twice the area of the island of Schiermonnikoog.
I understand the neat fan
“I understand the neat fan,” says director Albert van der Ploeg of BoerenNatuur Fryslân, the association of agricultural collectives that stands up for the interests of natural farmers. “I just want white water from nature to be produced for my country.”
Van der Ploeg emphasizes that in recent years there has been more agricultural nature management on agricultural land where farmers maintain landscape elements such as tree banks or ditches. “Ek is more private after all, not farmers.”
The development outlined by CBS also seems strange to ecologist and deputy director Chris Bakker of It Fryske Gea. “We hawwe nearne natoer ferlern.”
A city like Amsterdam included
Statistics Netherlands investigated various landscape types. Nationally, more land was used for the construction of houses or industry and the construction of roads. The built-up area grew by 277 square kilometers.
That is as if a city like Amsterdam were to be built up, including a few suburbs or, for an example, closer to home: as if the entire municipality of Leeuwarden and the Snitser Mar were being built up. In Friesland, 17 square kilometers of construction was added.
Grow agricultural land
While the amount of agricultural land shrank almost everywhere, it grew strongly in Friesland. After South Holland, most nature disappeared here, according to CBS. At first glance, the growth of agricultural land appears to be at the expense of nature, but this is not apparent from another dataset from CBS, the annual agricultural census.
What is going on? The difference has to do with the definition of nature. The agricultural census concerns land that is intended for agriculture or nature according to the environmental plan (the successor to the zoning plan since the Environmental Act came into force).
“We looked at areas that are used as nature,” says researcher Luuk Hovius. “These may also be lands that do have an agricultural purpose.”
Natural grassland
The loss is largely due to a smaller area of natural grassland. These are meadows such as the Hounsdyk bird polder under Goutum. No more than five tons of dry matter (the nutritional value from the mown grass, without the water) per hectare per year may be removed from this.
The term natural grassland is used for the Fertilizers Act and the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In short, farmers are generally allowed to apply fewer fertilizers, but they can receive certain European subsidies for this.
Fewer sheep farms
Such grasslands are often used for grazing sheep or horses. It has been a trend for more than twenty years that more and more of these types of companies are closing down, after which the land is sometimes taken over by arable farmers or livestock farmers who use them more intensively.
This is one of the explanations for the shrinkage of natural grassland and therefore of ‘nature’ according to Statistics Netherlands. Whether it is true that there is less nature and more agricultural land depends on the definition you use.
Conclusion
If you look at the use according to the Fertilizers Act and the CAP, you could say something in favor of it. Less natural grass also means less nature in the form of flowers and insects.
When you examine the zoning of the land, it is not correct. As long as the destination of their plots has not changed from agriculture to nature, farmers retain the option to use it more intensively.
The CBS study shows that this intensification generally took place over the past ten years. “The contrast between nature and countryside is like being great,” says Bakker. “Troch de merke en rigeljouwing were farmers with the rowing of yntensifearjen stjoerd wylst in protte ek wol oars wolle.”
Van der Ploeg also emphasizes the latter: “There are farmers who are very happy with the destination of natoer and also private natoerbeheard.”
Tags: CBS nature reserve Friesland size Schiermonnikoog disappeared ten years looked
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