News PBL
'Agriculture gives way to nature, housing and energy'
Agricultural land has to make way for nature, new homes, water and energy. Agriculture will return from a share of around 60% of the Dutch territory to about 50% in 2050. This is stated in the report published today (Thurs 8 April) by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL). 'Large tasks in a limited space'.
The current agricultural area is about 2 million hectares. The expansion of the nature reserve by 150.000 hectares (5.000 hectares per year until 2050) already means a decrease of the current agricultural area of approximately 8%.
"That decline, which is comparable to the decline in recent decades, could materialize over a 30-year period," the report said. The consequences for individual agricultural entrepreneurs could thus remain limited, because it is possible to respond to the fact that many agricultural companies have no business successor.
The report notes that the decrease in agricultural area can be much smaller if different functions are combined with each other. The magnitude of the decrease can also differ greatly from region to region. In some regions, the burden of agriculture on nature, water and soil, especially livestock farming, is greater than in other regions. There are also differences in soil fertility and suitability for highly productive agriculture, and in certain regions there is greater pressure to build in rural areas.
'Just need more space for farmers'
LTO chairman Sjaak van der Tak responds to the organization's website: "It is a pity that the PBL does not seem to understand that more space is needed for farmers and horticulturists to meet social wishes such as extensification, nature-inclusive agriculture and the cow in Moreover, it seems that nature is being reduced to Natura2000, while farmers and horticulturists as managers of the landscape are committed to biodiversity, meadow birds (you do need a meadow for meadow birds…), but also recreation in the green landscape and a dynamic countryside where people want and can live, work and live."
Ed Anker against LTO: Time for political hoarding is over
Ed Anker, alderman in Zwolle (ChristenUnie), also present during the PBL presentation, understands that LTO is angry about the report, but according to him you cannot afford to 'hoard politics' and 'one deepest interest'. to continue to represent. That is also what this report aims at.
Utilization of the living environment runs up against physical and social limits and issues must be solved in conjunction with each other, says PBL director Hans Mommaas. "Creating social support for spatial interventions, such as in the field of energy or agriculture, requires a government-wide effort", the report reads. PBL researcher Rien Kuiper: "The National Environmental Vision (NOVI) offers direction, but many choices still have to be made. This report wants to put the importance of making those choices on the agenda."
'More consequences of circular agriculture for the city than for the country'
Jannemarie de Jonge, Government Advisor for the Physical Living Environment was part of of the group led by Cees Veerman who recently launched the plan for a Minister for Spatial Planning, Agriculture and Nature and a Landscape Commissioner. De Jonge adds a new minister to the list: a minister of City and Country. "If we continue to look at everything in this way, it will not work. We have to look at it as a coherent system. If we take the development of circular agriculture seriously, it will have more consequences for the agro-industry, which is more urban than for primary agriculture." PBL researcher David Hamers gives another option for a minister: a minister of Housing. "We really think it's time to make decisions."
According to PBL, the government should take control. By bundling subsidy pots, so that space can also receive money from a mobility fund, for example, or that central government manages more integrally. According to PBL, this requires not only a coordinating ministry, but also an adjustment of rules so that spatial cohesion (synergy between functions) is rewarded, 'think of a buy-out scheme for agriculture that simultaneously contributes to the reduction of nitrogen deposition on nature areas and the approach of dehydration'.
Millions of homes
It is often about millions of homes that need to be built, but we don't know how many there will be, says Hamers. The scenarios vary between 750.000 and 1,5 million in 2030 and in the high scenario it is 2050 million in 2,4. He also points to the difference in housing pressure between regions and that diversification has not been very successful in the past.
Linda van Eekeres
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