'Provide openness about €40 million Natura2000 area'

Agrifacts Foundation (Staff) has sent a letter to all members of the House of Representatives. This calls for attention to the limited openness and transparency provided by government and government-affiliated researchers about the substantiation of certain reports and studies. For example, the authorities involved do not want to provide insight into the spending of €40 million in public money in the Wierdense Veld Natura 2000 area. 

Members of parliament are asked to commit themselves to actually giving shape to the 'new administrative culture' so desired by politicians. According to the Staff, the applicants must have access to the requested data and documents so that they can also be examined and completed independently.

Two practical examples of insufficient openness
Staff indicates that it does not always experience the cooperation and openness of governments and researchers that can be expected from an open management culture. Staff at the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality recently asked about the data associated with the research report on the Critical Deposition Values. Staf says it has only received part of the data, so it cannot complete its own investigation into the data.

The foundation has also delved into the situation in the Wierdense Veld Natura 2000 area. According to Staf, €40 million of public money has been invested in this area. Inquiries about how these funds were spent have been ignored. "Overijssels Landscape has made every effort to prevent the free publication of the data, with the knowledge of the province of Overijssel," said Staf in a press release. 

The aim of Staf is that statements and policy-making regarding Dutch agriculture are based on facts. In doing so, the foundations try to detect and point out inaccuracies and inadequate scientific substantiation, in order to promote correcting inaccuracies and defects where necessary.

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