CBS: in seven years, forty thousand football fields of nature were added

Between 2016 and 2023, approximately forty thousand football fields – 285 square kilometers – of nature were added in the Netherlands. This is evident from figures published by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on Tuesday. Among other things, 28 square kilometers of forest were added, and 15 square kilometers of heathland and sand drifts.

By far the largest increase was in natural grassland: an additional 255 square kilometers were added between 2016 and 2023. This had to do with “the expansion of nature and landscape management”, writes CBS.

Governments at national and provincial levels, among others, have made policies to let grass take its course, says CBS researcher Luuk Hovius, because it is good for biodiversity. For example, governments made agreements with farmers about how often mowing may be done. If grass – and other plants in the lawn, such as daisies, clovers and dandelions – are allowed to grow freely, insects will return to them.

The buyout of farms has also contributed to the return of natural grassland, says Hovius. “But it did not take care of the majority of those 255 square kilometers.”

More buildings

The amount of agricultural grassland – grassland on which cattle graze – has decreased significantly in the same seven years, writes Statistics Netherlands. 457 square kilometers disappeared, a decrease of 5 percent. That surface was partly converted into natural grassland, but also went to new buildings (which were given more space between 2016 and 2023). Some of the grassland remained agricultural land, but became arable and horticultural areas, for example.

There were also types of nature reserves that decreased in quantity between 2016 and 2023. Seven square kilometers of swamp and peat areas, and three square kilometers of dunes and coastal areas, disappeared. The amount of natural arable land, such as food forests, shrank by 4 square kilometers.

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