VMBO Year 2 · HAVO/VWO Years 2–3 · Ecology and sustainability · Section 6.4

Nature management

People and their environment

People depend on their environment for food, water, oxygen, energy and raw materials. Nature also provides places for recreation.

Much of the Dutch landscape has been shaped by people. This cultural landscape includes dykes, drainage channels, pastures and crop fields.

• Agriculture: Using land to grow crops or keep livestock.
• Forestry: Managing forests for purposes including timber production, fuel and other services.

Biodiversity

Agriculture, buildings and industry can remove or fragment habitats. These changes may reduce biodiversity, the variety of life, including variation within species, between species and among ecosystems.

A threatened species faces an elevated risk of disappearing. If all its members die, it becomes extinct.

Reintroduction

Reintroduction returns a species to an area where it previously lived but disappeared. Dutch projects involving species such as storks, beavers and otters illustrate efforts to rebuild populations.

Success depends on suitable habitat, management and the causes of the earlier decline being addressed. Population sizes can change, so fixed current counts need dated monitoring data.

Nature management

Nature management aims to conserve, protect and restore habitats and ecosystems. Measures may include:

• Reintroduction: Returning a locally lost species.
• Protection: For example, adjusting mowing times to protect nesting meadow birds.
• Tree removal: Keeping habitats such as heathland open where appropriate.
• Population management: In some situations, controlled removal or culling is used to address conflicts or safety risks, including around airports.
• Water management: Restoring or widening river areas to support both nature and flood management.

Measures involve choices about conservation aims and their effects on different species.