News item | 6/19/2023 | 11:00 am
Minister for Nature and Nitrogen Christianne van der Wal intends to reserve an additional five million euros each year for the years 2024 to 2030 to strengthen the position of National Parks in the Netherlands. This is in addition to the available approx. 1.3 million euros per year. With the extra 35 million euros until 2030, a strong impulse can be given to the further development towards more robust National Parks.
National heritage
Minister Christianne van der Wal: “The Netherlands has 21 National Parks that are the pearls of Dutch nature. They are the most special nature and landscape areas of our country, of great ecological value, which we can rightly regard as heritage that we must be careful with. I am pleased that we can further strengthen our National Parks together with the provinces”.
The National Parks are the place where the Dutch can enjoy nature and landscape. They form the national collection of the most unique Dutch nature and landscape areas with all the cultural heritage they contain: the sea, the tidal areas in the delta, dunes, peat bogs, rivers, streams, heaths and forests. The National Parks make an important contribution to biodiversity in the Netherlands. In addition, the organizations of the National Parks can also make a valuable contribution to the major challenges in the rural area by contributing their knowledge about the area to the area processes in the region.
Policy program
Today, Minister Van der Wal sent the new National Parks Policy Program 2024-2030 to the House of Representatives, containing the basic requirements that each National Park must meet. For example, each national park must be a coherent area with at least one natural core of at least 1000 hectares. The park contributes to the connection of people with nature and is open to the public, whereby recreation must be in balance with nature conservation.
The Netherlands is on the eve of major changes in rural areas and the policy program also includes various example projects that show how National Parks, together with provinces, area organizations and local governments, contribute innovatively to social and spatial challenges. National Parks function pre-eminently as network organizations in which nature parties, agricultural parties, entrepreneurs and knowledge organizations work together to improve nature management, enhance the experience of nature and share new information with the public.
Biodiversity is under pressure worldwide and also in the Netherlands. Preserving and strengthening the unique nature in the National Parks does not happen automatically. For the National Parks Policy Program 2024-2030, a step-by-step approach has been chosen to work with support from the region towards parks that are more robust and in which nature in a densely populated country such as the Netherlands can be managed and experienced sustainably. The policy program was drawn up together with the provinces, subject to co-financing from the region. Agreements will be made with the provinces about this later this year.