“Two-fold”, thinks LTO Noord foreman Dirk Bruins about the new coalition agreement that was presented yesterday in the provincial house. After four months of negotiations, BBB, VVD, PvdA and CDA have decided what the joint plans are for the next four years. Drenthe nature and environmental organizations call on provincial politicians for vision, decisiveness and cooperation.
LTO’er Bruins is somewhat satisfied with what it contains. “It is full of good intentions, but you have to be honest. There are not many new things in it,” says Bruins. “I don’t see a major tilt in what they want.” But he is still not completely satisfied. “Quite a lot depends on national politics.”
The nature and environmental organizations Natuur en Milieufederatie Drenthe (NMF), Natuurmonumenten and Het Drentse Landschap believe that the agreement offers ‘sufficient building blocks’, also because it is clear what needs to be done. “We hope that we will now move from a period of uncertainty and stagnation to a period of perspective and decisiveness,” they write in a statement.
In detail, Bruins is pleased that attention is being paid to how nature can be combined with agricultural areas. “But what exactly does that mean? Who’s in charge?” The agreement states that agricultural land will remain agricultural land unless decided otherwise. Reinder Hoekstra of NMF: “That suggests that there is peace, but they can still go in any direction with it. It would mean that no residential areas are being built in rural areas and that there would be no theme park near Meppel. The question remains how the college deals with this.”
LTO member Bruins is pleased that Drenthe has been declared a wolf-free zone. “But how are you going to make that concrete? Is it feasible?” The Drenthe nature and environmental organizations also question this. “Because how are they going to manage that?” Hoekstra wonders. “I would like to put that question to the college.”
The organizations call on ‘to invest primarily in today’s bottlenecks and to work on good solutions. It is especially important that the province now takes up this role itself and also together with all parties involved. The Drenthe nature and environmental organizations would also like to continue with this.’
Something that is more concrete is not expanding Natura 2000 areas. Bruins: “We are happy with that, just marking time. We also love nature, but now you have to look at what is possible.” Bruins sees mainly positive points in that there is less policy from above, but that policy is mainly made from the kitchen table.
Bruins says he can breathe easy if farms can keep their permits and continue to compete with all farms in Western Europe. “Families cannot live on supplying at cost price level. So you have to pay for it.”
Bruins finds it worrying that the agreement does not say anything about the policy of the province taking precedence over national policy. “We have to make sure that the policy in the province can be implemented.”
In two years’ time, the Provincial Executive will evaluate how well policy implementation is going. “I still have concerns about the export. Is it realistic?” Bruins concludes. Hoekstra does not want to say whether the nature organizations can be satisfied. “We mainly looked at what we can do something with and we want to focus on that.”