Who by the Dutch #landschap cycles, rides or trains, sees mainly endless, straight #verkavelde #landbouwvelden - Yes. The small Netherlands is the second largest exporter of agricultural products in the world. But we pay a price. What have we all lost under the green asphalt?

In 1900, groups of organisms were 40 percent of the possible size of the population. Now that's 15 percent. The biggest driver for this is intensive agriculture. This was the conclusion of the Planning Bureau for the Living Environment in 2014.

The conclusion of the latest PBL report 'Balance of the living environment' from 2018 was: 'The nature in the agricultural area is still deteriorating. Indicative for this is the progressive decline of farmland birds and butterflies in the agricultural area, despite the use of agricultural nature conservation... Information about trends around insects in the Dutch agricultural area is scarce.

The 2 billion euro of natural subsidy that farmers received in the last 6 years was wasted money. Farmers became richer, nature became poorer. Money was used for patchwork and fake measures. The only measure that REALLY helps: fewer animals, was avoided

Nevertheless, Kleijn et al. (2018) conclude that the decline in insect species seems to continue unabated. They seek the explanation in the dominant way of farms. Manure use, nitrogen deposition, application of plant protection products and control on efficient processing and thus monotonous plots together lead to exposure to toxic substances and a lack of food and suitable habitats for insects. Because all these factors are closely related, it is difficult to determine what exactly causes what, which makes it difficult to design an effective approach. '

Balance of the Living Environment PBL report 'Balance of the living environment' from 2018 was


(This story can also be heard.)

How the Netherlands became the chessboard you see from above