Government and provinces add €100 million for nature management in 2027
The central government will put in €56 million and the provinces €44 million so nature managers can carry out maintenance next year, which the agriculture minister links to restarting permitting.
The central government and the twelve provinces will make €100 million available for nature management in 2027: €56 million from central government and €44 million from the provinces. The provinces agreed on Tuesday 13 October, after Jaimi van Essen, minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature (LVVN), presented a financial proposal to all provincial executives earlier this month.
The money goes to the Subsidiestelsel Natuur en Landschap (SNL), the subsidy scheme for nature managers. It lets organisations that manage nature areas, and private managers, carry out work such as forest maintenance, dredging watercourses and mowing terrain, whether by machines, sheep or other grazers.
Managers apply to the provinces for SNL subsidy. An external evaluation showed that the costs of nature management have risen, so extra funds are needed for adequate management.
Van Essen said she welcomes the provinces' support. "Without good management, measures aimed at nature restoration only have a temporary effect," she said. She said good management is the basis for restoration and also makes it easier to grant permits. The ministry lists it as one of the links that can help restart the granting of permits, alongside system-restoration measures and reducing pressures on nature.
Matthijs de Vries, the provincial executive member who speaks for nature on behalf of the provinces' joint body IPO, said the provinces are living up to their responsibility. "Ultimately we want to make structural agreements with central government on nature management in a new Natuurpact," he said.
Central government and the provinces are working towards a Natuurpact 2.0, which will set new structural agreements on nature policy, including how nature management is funded.
SNL (Subsidiestelsel Natuur en Landschap)
The Nature and Landscape Subsidy Scheme is the Dutch government subsidy scheme that pays nature managers to maintain and manage nature and landscape. Both organisations that manage nature areas and private managers can apply, for work such as forest maintenance, dredging watercourses and mowing terrain, whether done by machines, sheep or other grazing animals.
Natuurpact
The Natuurpact is the agreement between the Dutch central government and the provinces on how nature policy is organised and funded. It sets the structural arrangements that the two levels of government use to work together on nature.