last update on 17-07-06

project title:
 Farming for Nature
region:
 Twickel (Ambt-Delden)
contact:
 Anton Stortelder
a.h.f.stortelder@wur.nl
Raymond Schrijver
r.a.m.schrijver@lei.dlo.nl

website: www.boerenvoornatuur.nl
country:
 the Netherlands
The project
main goals:

 Farming for Nature is a policy instrument which supports for instance dairy farmers which are confronted with low prices due to changes in the Common Agricultural Policy.
Farming for Nature offers new opportunities to innovative farmers to switch from intensive farming towards extensive farming systems in a country where prices of agricultural land are as high as €35000 per hectare. Farmer's original income is compensated by agri-environmental measures: payments for so called green (a better landscape and biodiversity) and blue (water retention and conservation) services. The compensation is on an annual base and can be as high as €1000 per hectare. This high payment for agri-environmental services demonstrates that there is a high demand for this kind of services in Dutch society.
main participants:

  
time schedule:

  
project details:
  • Farmers play a more significant role in managing nature and landscape.
  • Farmers are guaranteed financial compensation for green services.
  • Long-term agreements ensure nature development and a fair remuneration for farmers.
  • Farmers are free to decide which management form best suits their circumstances, and which parts of their farm will be used for new landscape elements.
  • Farmers still own the land. The farmer enters into an agreement on the way it is to be used, and this is laid down in a contract (in the form of a servitude or lease).
  • Zoning is based on three management types:
    • Large-scale.
    • Landscape-oriented.
    • Nature-oriented.
    • Collaboration with local and regional partners, guaranteeing that the specific character of the land will be preserved.
budget:

 around €5,000000
funded by:

 National and local government, private sector
Benefits
ecological benefits:
 Because farmers with a landscape- or natureoriented enterprise receive financial compensation for existing and future landscape elements, the quality of the green space is enhanced. Clear private-law agreements, in the form of servitudes, for example, will guarantee the maintenance and management of nature and the landscape for years to come. That continuity is the major guarantee for the future quality of nature. In a nature-oriented enterprise differences will gradually become apparent between land parcels which still produce a reasonable yield and others which are slowly becoming less suitable for agricultural trick like I UK production. This provides new opportunities for wild plants and animals traditionally found in the agrarian man-made landscapes. Thanks to the zoning of the three types of enterprise, with the nature-oriented farms situated around nature areas or around the cities, regional gradations gradually appear, from small-scale to largescale landscapes, with natural elements of varying quality.
socio-economic benefits:

Landscape- and nature-oriented farms will only be viable if they provide a sustainable income.
The key characteristics are:

  • The farmer’s economic compensation is attractive.
  • He can leave the poorest land for the benefit of nature and the landscape.
  • He is assured of long-term compensation for activities related to the management of nature and the landscape.
The latter condition can be met by paying the landscape- and nature-oriented farmers an annual sum via a regional fund. On a nature-oriented farm this payment will constitute the bulk of the annual income. By not basing the remuneration on precisely defined ‘target types’, ‘target species’ and prescribed measures, but rather consulting with the farmer on the various landscape elements and the most appropriate operating plan, the farmer is still in charge of
his own farm. In the future, nature-oriented farms and, in some cases, landscape-oriented enterprises will be eligible for ‘estate’ status.
This has certain fiscal advantages when the property is transferred. The farmer also has the satisfaction of knowing that society values his contribution to nature and the landscape.
other benefits:
 Where at present the built environment often borders on vast inaccessible fields of monocultures (e.g. maize), in the future new management set-ups will create a half-open landscape with meadows filled with flowers, and fields alternating with windbreaks, tree groups and small bodies of water. This will create a strong alliance between city,
agriculture and nature. For those coming from the city, the nature-oriented areas provide access to the landscape-oriented zone.
Here the man-made landscape is surrounded by a variety of green structures, both old and new. This creates a varied and dynamic landscape. Home-made products are sold at the farm gate, while each region is recognizable by the
building style of the farmhouses, the shape of the parcels and the structure of the wooded banks.

» read more (documents 5 & 6)
Pictures