last update on 17-07-06

project title:
 Farm estate
region:
 Brabant
contact:
 Peter van Oers
e-mail: Peter.vanoers@boxtel.nl
Anton Stortelder
e-mail: Anton.stortelder@wur.nl

website: www.lifescapeyourlandscape.org
country:
 the Netherlands
   
The project
main goals:
  • Replacing intensive farming by low-input farming delivering income from services such clean water, biodiversity and landscape.
  • Farmestate follows the management concept of Farming for Nature with long term contracts.
  • The innovative part of Farmestate is the financing mechanism. Farmers obtain permission to built a house on a housing lot for each 5 ha of land from the municipality. The monthly value of the permission is equivalent to the depreciation of the land prices i.e. one million euro for 30 hectares of land. In the Netherlands prices of agricultural land are as high as 35000 euro, whereas land which has in the spatial planning a status of "nature" status costs only 5000 euro per ha.
  • Another interesting spin off is that in this case the farmer Peter Oomen also manages with his cattle a few hundred hectares of heathlands in the nearby Kampina for "Natuurmonumenten" the national natur trust in the Netherlands.
main participants:

 2 farmers, Municipality of Boxtel, Province of Brabant ,Alterra and the interreg project Lifescape.
time schedule:

 3 years
project details:

  
budget:

 €1000000
funded by:

 interreg Lifescape project, Boxtel Municipality, Province of Brabant and Ministry of Agriculture
Benefits
ecological benefits:
 Intensive farming is replaced by extensive farming, satisfying a high demand for green areas and clean water resources near cities such as Boxtel.
socio-economic benefits:
 Providing a long-term and new perspective for farming.
other benefits:
 It is attractive for farmers to graze these areas even paying a small lease, but in case farmers stop farming, management of these natural areas may cost up to a €1000 per hectare! Farm estate offers a viable alternative.

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