The (Non)Sense of Nature Preservation:

A Dutch Case

Does it make sense to talk about preserving nature in the managed and long-trodden Dutch landscape?"  North American ethicist Phil Cafaro brought this question along on his first trip to the Netherlands. Alderwoman Louke van Wensveen invited Cafaro and the NSRPP Environmental Ethics Group to explore the question on a field trip in the municipality of Brummen. They went to the Empese en Tondense heide, a heather marsh protected by European Natura 2000 regulation.

The ethicists were joined by municipal council members, local green party officials, the provincial Natura2000 program manager, sustainability consultants, retired industry executives, volunteer nature guides and active citizens. Forest Ranger Harald van den Akker (Natuurmonumenten) led the excursion.  Afterwards, the group was invited for tea and discussion on the farm of Rita Schoonman in Brummen.

The Empese and Tondese Heide used to be a large, soggy area known locally as 'bad lands'.  The farmers of Empe and Tonden annually removed humus to produce fertilizer for their fields.  

Heather flourished in the impoverished soil left behind.

Today, the Empese en Tondese Heide is a protected landscape maintained by the rangers and volunteers of Natuurmonumenten.

Ranger Harald van den Akker and council member Norbert Lucassen guided the group into the no go area. A former US forest ranger himself, Phil Cafaro cultivated a virtuous balance between listening and teaching. 

Into the wild they went... or was wildness a matter of perception?

Spruce trees are invading the central heather field.  

Cafaro and Van den Akker discussed the ethics of managing exotics.  Is an invasion due to agricultural water extraction less natural than spontaneous species migration?