ABSTRACT
Since the 1960s there has been growing social demand for nature conservation in the Netherlands. This demand led to a turning point; landscape is no longer changing because of the conversion of nature areas into agricultural land, but because of conversion in the opposite direction, from agricultural land to nature areas. Since the 1980s the Dutch government has gradually developed a new nature zoning policy, consisting of purchasing agricultural land and converting it to different types of nature. In 1990 the Dutch government introduced the Nature Policy Plan (Natuurbeleidsplan) of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, with Nature and Food Quality as a “policy concept”. An important component of this Plan was the National Ecological Network (NEN): a network of nature areas including nationally and internationally important nature and landscape areas and biodiversity “hotspots”. The objective of the NEN is to protect and enhance nature areas and landscape structures.
