Ancient Woodland Sites
During the most recent Provincial Council meeting, the protection of ancient woodland sites took center stage. These are forests that have existed continuously for hundreds of years. Precisely this long continuity makes them ecologically highly valuable: they harbour unique biodiversity, a rich soil ecosystem, and seed banks that have built up over centuries.
In the previous coalition term, a majority of the Provincial Council explicitly confirmed this importance, with the agreement to continue protecting these (often small) forest areas with care.
Proposal to Relax Protection
The current coalition (made up of BBB, VVD, CDA, ChristenUnie and SGP) now wants to relax the protection of ancient woodland sites outside the Gelderland Nature Network (GNN) and Natura 2000 areas. According to the coalition, this is necessary to make room for other societal priorities and because ecological quality in some places is said to have declined.
The responsible provincial executive stated that the current protection unnecessarily hinders development. At the same time, it has not been convincingly substantiated why careful exemptions would not be possible within the existing rules. For Volt, this is an important reason not to support this proposal.
(A provincial executive councillor is comparable to a minister, but at provincial level.)
Volt’s Objections
Volt has no desire to scale back the protection of ancient woodland sites. But if this route is followed nonetheless, we consider it self-evident that this must be done on the basis of clear, well-substantiated, and transparent criteria.
We fear that the criteria currently proposed are insufficient for that purpose. This creates the risk that ecologically valuable woodland sites will be released unjustifiably. A few examples:
It is proposed to reduce protection for all woodland sites smaller than one hectare, even though several small woodlands together can have high ecological value.
Some locations do not meet all criteria, but still harbour stable populations of typical ancient-forest species.
Such nuances are not included in the executive’s proposal, even though they are clearly highlighted in the Wageningen University study (Bijlsma & Koop, 2022) on this topic.
Attempt to Fix the Proposal
Volt therefore took the initiative, together with other parties, to improve the proposal. We submitted the motion “Carefully protect ancient woodland sites and make area-based use of them”, with the aim of making the assessment more careful and ecologically stronger.
In addition, we argue for balance: if nature is protected less in certain places, this must be compensated by extra efforts to safeguard nature elsewhere. We also submitted a motion to that effect.
What Happens Next?
Unfortunately, neither motion was adopted. This leaves it unclear what scaling back protection will mean in practice. Volt therefore expects that the final word on this dossier has not yet been spoken.
Within this dossier, provincial executive councillor Zoet also acted carelessly on several occasions. You can read more about this in our reflection, “Why did Volt support the motion of censure?” The combination of substantive uncertainty and that motion has led to considerable media attention.
Volt will continue to work for transparent governance and for the careful protection of valuable nature, even when that protection comes under pressure.