2023-09-29 11:30:00
This is my hundredth column for Fidelity, and for now the last. With the first one, at the beginning of 2019, I wondered whether the topics would soon run out. That turned out to be unnecessary. Nature conservation is hot. Not a week goes by without remarkable news about nature and environmental protection. And otherwise, as a nature columnist you can always write about scientific discoveries, annoyances or natural beauty that makes you happy.
This seems like an appropriate time to look back. Have the prospects for Dutch nature improved in the past four years with the increasing attention to nature conservation?
Yes, there were hopeful developments. It started with an alarming research report from Ipbes, the International Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. It estimated that a million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction due to destruction, pollution and exploitation of nature. The scientists foresaw that this would ultimately cause problems for humans themselves.
It was an impetus for an ambitious international treaty for biodiversity restoration, which the Netherlands also signed. It agreed that a third of the mainland and seas will be protected to halt and reverse the decline in species diversity.
The European Commission made good progress with its Green Deal, with greening agriculture, reducing the use of pesticides and nature restoration as important components.
In the Netherlands, various governments, companies and other organizations joined the Delta Plan on Biodiversity Restoration, which tries to create space for wild plants and animals in various ways.
Citizens to court
There were also successes by citizens who went to court to enforce that the government took its task of protecting people, nature and the environment more seriously. Consider Urgenda’s climate case and Mob’s nitrogen cases (Mobilization for the Environment), which force the government to do something about air pollution from agriculture, traffic and industry. And there were successful lawsuits from concerned citizens against pesticide use, groundwater extraction, discharge of chemicals, and disruption of nature.
Nature conservation has a tailwind in the Netherlands and Europe, you would say. Support for nature and environmental protection among the population is greater than ever.
Rise of anti-nature populism
Yet I am far from confident, because the opposition is unprecedented. Companies and other stakeholders who suffer from restrictions breed distrust with lobbying and smart campaigns full of disinformation and mobilize fierce resistance. The rise of anti-nature populism is a direct consequence of this. As a result, the boards of many provinces and water boards have become less nature-friendly. The same threatens to happen at national and European level.
We see that ambitions have been scrapped. The European Parliament thwarted the greening of European agricultural subsidies and limiting the use of pesticides. The Netherlands undermined the European Nature Restoration Act that gave substance to the biodiversity treaty. More than four years after the nitrogen ruling, very little has been achieved to actually reduce emissions. Schiphol even casually received a large nature permit this week.
Amusement park
Yesterday, Kris van Koppen and Ellen Mangnus demonstrated NRC that nature cannot be saved with technical analyses, treaties, rules and judicial decisions alone. This will only work if we understand the emotional connection between people and landscape and people and putting nature first. The basis for this lies in the positive experience of nature. They are right, but I fear the further amusement of nature.
I personally think that nature can only be saved by spreading knowledge and wonder: both about nature and about our dependence on it. Only in this way will the breeding ground for the anti-nature populism that threatens our future disappear. I hope my columns have contributed something to that.
This is the last column by Patrick Jansen, ecologist and associate professor in Wageningen. He wrote a column every other week for Trouw. Previous episodes can be found here.
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