About Nature Policy, Large Ecosystems
in a Small and Crowded Country
and the Role Large Herbivores can Play:
Challenges For Future!

von H. Kampf, Wageningen / Niederlande

6. History and future

6.1 Introduction to grazing

The majority of Dutch nature areas is -as said before- man-made and mainly the result of agricultural activities. Nature protection came up about a century ago. Developments in management are much younger and still continuing. In our country there is a growing tendency to reduce human influence on nature. This is reflected in our approach to nature policy, which is based on the three tiers, self-sustaining nature being preferred to semi-natural nature.

Large herbivore grazing is a management tool very suitable to decrease management intensity. Grazing is not only favourable to nature, but also cheaper and environment-friendlier than management with (large) machines.

Besides, grazing results in a different and more natural pattern than mechanical management. Grazing will produce mosaic-like patches, whereas mechanical management will create a coarser-grained pattern with less micro contrasts.

Whether grazing is an option depends on:

• objectives for nature
• type and size of the site. It is preferred that a combination of different site types is available (e.g. dry / wet, nutrient-poor / more nutrient-rich).
• quality and quantity of feed available
• the type of grazing: year-round or seasonal
• but also: the individual animal characteristics
• and the dynamics in grazer populations in a specific area

Natural grazing demands low stocking rates, for instance: one animal per 5 - 30 ha.

In year-round grazing the animals are kept throughout the year within fences. Seasonal grazing is during a specified part of the year, generally summer. In winter the animals are elsewhere. It is possible to combine the two, e.g.

• cattle and horse grazing in summer and only horse grazing in winter
• more intensive cattle grazing in summer and less intensive in winter;
• summer grazing in richer areas, e.g. flood plains, and winter grazing in drier areas, e.g. heathlands and dunes.

Under flanking European measures it is possible to create additional grant schemes per country. Following the recommendations made by the 'Stichting Zeldzame Huisdieren in Nederland' (Dutch society of rare breeds) a proposal is being drawn up to create a subsidy scheme with European money (Mac Sharry) to promote the survival and expansion of a number of rare agricultural breeds, such as the Groningen horse, Lakenveld cattle (see Photo 3) , Drenthe, Veluwe and Kempen heathland sheep, and the Dutch land-race goat.

Photo 3

The choice for year-round or seasonal grazing or a mix is heavily dependent on the conditions of the site (feed quantity and quality; scale of the area; barriers as roads and cities), objectives for the site and the manager. When a flood plain borders on a large heathland expectations are that the animals will create a pattern of their own, their behaviour in winter differing from that in summer. A case in point is the 'Karshoek/Stegeren' area in the province of Overijssel.

Fig. 9

The problem in the Netherlands is that such transitions are often cut through by busy roads, or that building has interfered with the original transition from low to high. Transitions can be restored at only a few locations in the Netherlands. A (theoretical) solution is to create combined grazing areas. In summer the animals will graze the nutrient-rich areas, in winter a much larger nutrient-poor area. 

The advantage of year-round grazing is that the animals are better able to come to a site-specific and animal-specific grazing pattern, resulting in differentiation: a mosaic of open spots, thickets and woodland. This makes the site suitable for other - smaller - grazers, insects and insect feeders. It also results in a natural herd composition. The larger the site, the more species it will be suitable for and the more natural the processes will be in the herd.

Long ago, wild herbivores took care of open spots in the forests. They prevented trees from becoming too dominant, and so created places where other species could live - the species we find in grasslands today. Hunting and agriculture pushed these wild herbivores back to more remote areas. Often they became locally or totally extinct and live on in pictures, mugs or arms, like that of the City of Auerbach in Bavaria.

>For centuries agriculture developed in a way which did not harm biodiversity. But even though the variation in species and in landscape types was maintained or even increased, less and less space was available for large animals and natural processes. Nowadays the situation is totally different. In large parts of Europe, agriculture is so intensive that almost all the positive effects on biodiversity have disappeared.

Photo 4

Furthermore, agriculture is becoming more marginal in many areas of Europe. Rural areas are being abandoned and this affects biodiversity and ecological processes. Since areas are no longer grazed, rich vegetations are being overgrown by scrub and covered by litter (such as thick layers of dead grasses), for instance on former state farms in Estonia.

In these areas, two options are available to maintain biodiversity:

• European subsidies for farmers, who manage their farms in an environmentally friendly manner. This is an option under Regulation 2078 (the Rural Development Regulation).

• Another option is to adopt a new type of management using grazing herds. This option is particularly valuable in areas where agriculture is too intensive or where agriculture is disappearing altogether.

It is interesting to look at the role large herbivores can play in both approaches. Here I want to stress the opportunities for large herbivores outside normal agricultural practices.

Wild herbivores are the red deer, roe deer, fallow deer, wild boar, moose, European bison and hare, rabbit, wild geese and extinct species such as wild cattle and the wild horse or Tarpan. The domestic animals include cattle, horses, sheep and goats. My point here is that wild herbivores and their substitutes play a vital part in the ecosystem, while domestic herbivores have a role as management tools but also have an effect on the ecosystem.

Fig. 10

You may know about the differences between browsers (such as roe deer and moose) and grazers such as cattle and horses, and the intermediate animals such as red deer and the European bison. I will restrict myself to cattle and horses - the grazers. We can imagine that once large herds of wild cattle and horses roamed through the European forests and plains, along with other large herbivores such as the European bison, red deer, roe deer and moose, migrating from north to south and possibly from east to west.

The vast areas once roamed by the large herbivores in Europe are now quite literally fenced in. Europe is a map of roads making a mosaic of urban places and agricultural land, dotted with nature areas. Most nature areas are fragmentary: without links to other similar areas. This makes life very dangerous for wild herbivores. For example, they have to cross busy roads, and accidents can happen. Of course this is dangerous for the car driver as well but it also disturbs the ecosystem. The only option is to fence them in, but then natural migration becomes impossible. Owners of agricultural land are not very keen on having wild deer or boars in the fields. Then there is hunting and poaching as other risks, especially in countries were economy is still at a low level.

Not much is left of the natural behaviour of large herbivores in Europe. They have gone from being daylight animals to nocturnal, that is, they sleep by day and wander between dusk and morning. No longer can they migrate between summer and winter habitats as they once used to do.

What’s remarkable is that in an area like the Oostvaardersplassen, at least in the part open to the public, the red deer and other large herbivores have lost the shyness they had acquired, like these deer we photographed from 20 metres away as we walked passed them. It was clear that one group was used to passers-by and that the others learned from them that there was nothing to fear from us.

The same has happened in the Jaegersborg area in Dyrehave, north of Copenhagen, where the deer are not afraid of people at all, as long as people’s behaviour is predictable.

Photo 5

Back to the fragmented nature areas. Must we accept this as eternal truth? Is it a fact or can we find solutions which give large herbivores more room? I think we can, and if we are successful, we can credit ourselves with a cultural accomplishment comparable to the achievement of our social security system.

We had a large symposium in the Netherlands in 1998. For two days 250 people talked about current ecological, veterinary and welfare issues around cattle and horses in nature areas. The second day, however, we looked to the future: 2010, 2030 and the possibilities for linking up the fragmented nature areas. Then Geert Groot Bruinderink of Alterra, the Green World Research Institute, showed us this slide, sketching the possibilities of linking Hamburg to the Vosges via the Dutch nature areas, the Veluwe and the floodplains of the major rivers.

Photo 6

Fortunately there were representatives of our department present that day, who found this a challenging idea. We also had a new minister and state secretary, who liked the comprehensive approach and set great store by the quality of food and the rural areas. They told us to come up with some creative designs. Researchers, managers, policymakers and designers were told to make a sketchbook there and then showing the Netherlands as seen from three perspectives: biodiversity, people’s wishes, and distinctiveness and identity.

This is one of more than 20 sketches made. You can see the Veluwe connected to the Utrecht Heuvelrug area, both of which link up with the great rivers IJssel and Rhine, with rehabilitated drainage areas and a link to the Oostvaardersplassen.

Photo 7

Is this a pie in the sky or a real option? Only time will tell, but it is certain that the government has incorporated this picture in the new Nature Policy Plan. This is what it says about:

• Ecologically Robust Corridors
• Veluwe-Utrechtse Heuvelrug area and environment

To connect large units of nature area and to enlarge these units, a number of robust linking zones will be realised with an added surface area of about 27,000 hectares. This will improve physical cohesion at the national level and help an international network to function.

This is important for mobile species such as bittern, otter (marshland areas, Wet Axis) red deer and pine marten (sandy areas), but also for species that could die out from all sorts of risks and dangers in parts of the national network. These linking zones have more than a purely ecological function. They enhance the landscape and its cultural/historical identity, bring nature closer to the cities, and contribute to sustainable water management and better recreational opportunities.

The Veluwe and Utrechtse Heuvelrug areas appear to be connected on the map, but in fact are highly fragmented and hemmed in. Motorways and rail lines form practically impassable barriers to animal migration, as do the many fences around woodlands and open agricultural areas. This is also true for opportunities to forage in the mineral-rich river valley areas, while it is precisely these places, which are important foraging sites for larger animals such as red deer and wild boar.

And it works, like the three large ecoducts in the Netherlands prove.

We are faced with the challenge to develop the Veluwe, Utrechtse Heuvelrug and the surrounding area as a whole, as a coherent large-scale nature area. This means that a number of Ecologically Robust Corridors must be realised between the Veluwe and the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, that the infrastructure criss-crossing the area must be reduced and that access to the lower, wetter areas such as the Rhine, Kromme Rijn and IJssel rivers must be improved. It is a challenge that will require many actors and a great deal of energy, but a challenge that will yield much. Both in terms of biodiversity and for people’s environmental perception. If the cohesion between the Veluwe, Utrechtse Heuvelrug and surrounding areas is increased, it will be a more valuable recreational product than before, and as such will contribute substantially to the regional and national economy.

The realisation will require an estimated 3.000 to 4.000 ha. 

The strong, robust link between the Oostvaardersplassen and the Veluwe will be an extra challenge, as it has to cut through prime agricultural land. However, the result will be unique in Western Europe - a large, dry, oligotrophic area will be connected to a rather wet, eutrophic area by means of a robust corridor hundreds of metres wide and which can be used by both large (and of course, other) animals and people (extensive recreation). Scientists have to say what their demands are.

These areas, and the Wet Axis (blue zone) which cuts diagonally through our country from the Zeeland Delta to the Wadden Sea, have been designated as priority areas. For these two areas an estimated 13.000 to 15.000 ha will be needed. The green spots mark the searching areas for corridors between the Neteherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Fig. 11

Once these areas have been incorporated in the Fifth Memorandum on Physical Planning (2000 or 2001), the necessary financial means will become available for the acquisition of the first 13.000 ha. The State will set the preconditions, and the provinces will be asked to draw up the plans.