Forstwirtschaft und Forstpolitik in den Niederlanden zwischen Verstädterung und ländlicher Entwicklung

Hannover

2004

S. 371-375

3 Abb., 34 Lit. Ang.

Artikel aus einer ZeitschriftUnselbständiges Werk

200114608

The Netherlands cannot be considered as a traditional forest country, with an average forest cover of only 0.02 ha per capita or in total about 360,000 ha, while at the same time being one of the most urbanized countries in Europe. Nevertheless, in the last decade several important developments have taken place in the Netherlands, which could also be of interest for moe traditional forest countries. After an introduction into the history of the Dutch woodlands the article focuses on the structure of the Durch forestry sector. Due to the huge variety in ownership structure, the diversity in forest owners motivation and the small average size (45 % between 0.5-5 ha) several parallel "forestry's" seems to be established instead of one consistent forestry sector. At the same time forest politics has increasingly become a sub-sector of nature conservation and landscape politics. Against this background the article highlights seveal important changes in forest policy such as decentralisation tendencies, the (semi-)privatisation of the former State Forest Service (SBB), and the switch from an input- to an output-oriented forest subsidy system. All developments illustrate the shift in the understanding of forestry from a primary government task to one of governance arrangements, including negotiation, network coordination, and the explicit involvement of broader societal issues in policy formulation and implementation.