{"id":5589,"date":"2018-05-22T13:39:12","date_gmt":"2018-05-22T13:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=5589"},"modified":"2018-05-22T13:39:28","modified_gmt":"2018-05-22T13:39:28","slug":"the-oostvaardersplassen-what-went-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/the-oostvaardersplassen-what-went-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"The Oostvaardersplassen – What went wrong?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You might remember our post on Flevoland<\/a>, a Dutch province that was created from scratch – literally. The land did not exist before. Part of that creation of land was also the the creation of a\u00a0natuurgebied\u00a0<\/em>(nature reserve), called the\u00a0Oostvaardersplassen.\u00a0<\/em>With a size of 5600 hectares (about 14,000 acres), it is an important\u00a0natuurgebied\u00a0<\/em>not just for the Netherlands: Many\u00a0vogels\u00a0<\/em>(birds)\u00a0overwinteren\u00a0<\/em>(winter) in the\u00a0Oostvaardersplassen<\/em>. So it is an important piece of nature under the protection of the\u00a0Staatsbosbeheer\u00a0<\/em>(Dutch Forestry Service). But not all is well. What went wrong?<\/p>\n

Experiment<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Location of the Oostvaardersplassen <\/em>in the Netherlands, and in the province of Flevoland. (Based on image by Janwillemvanaalst at Commons.wikimedia.org under license CC BY SA 4.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

In the beginning, the\u00a0Oostvaardersplassen\u00a0<\/em>had a experiment:\u00a0Grote grazers<\/em>, that roamed the Netherlands a long time ago, were released into the park in the 1980s. Initially, these were 32\u00a0Heckrunderen\u00a0<\/em>(Heck cattle)\u00a0and\u00a020\u00a0Konikpaarden<\/em>\u00a0(Konik horses).\u00a0<\/em>In the 1990s, 57 edelherten<\/em>\u00a0(red deer)\u00a0were added.\u00a0and\u00a0 They are considered\u00a0Wild\u00a0<\/em>(wild animals). This means that the animals are not given any additional food (so-called\u00a0bijvoeren<\/em>) and\u00a0cadavers are not taken away, as this is a source of nutrition for other animals. The idea was that a natuurlijke\u00a0<\/em>(natural) area could be created in the Netherlands with\u00a0dieren\u00a0<\/em>(animals) from former times.<\/p>\n

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Konikpaarden<\/em> in the Oostvaardersplassen<\/em> (Image by GerardM at Commons.wikimedia.org under license CC BY SA 3.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

However, over the years, the populations of these\u00a0grote grazers\u00a0<\/em>exploded, up to the point that there were about 5200 of them! They have no natural enemies in the\u00a0Oostvaardersplassen<\/em>, and so they keep breeding and expanding. The problem: The park is not large enough for the amount of animals that live there now, and there is not enough food. So they eat away much of the begroeiing\u00a0<\/em>(vegetation), and now there is not much left. The consequence is that many of the\u00a0grazers\u00a0<\/em>die a painful death due to\u00a0honger\u00a0<\/em>(hunger).<\/p>\n

This led to a lot of\u00a0woede\u00a0<\/em>(anger) under\u00a0actievoerders\u00a0<\/em>(activists), and after enough protest, Flevoland decided to do some\u00a0bijvoeren<\/em> to prevent further deaths.<\/p>\n

So what can be done about that?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Unfortunately, the amount of\u00a0dieren\u00a0<\/em>in the park has to be reduced and then maintained. Currently, about 2200 grote grazers\u00a0<\/em>live in the park, a number that, according to a\u00a0onderzoekscommissie\u00a0<\/em>(inquiry committee), needs to be halved.\u00a0Simply\u00a0bijvoeren\u00a0<\/em>is not going to help, since it would only lead to a further increase of the population. More specifically, the\u00a0commissie\u00a0<\/em>advises to leave the\u00a0Heckrunderen\u00a0<\/em>alone, move some of the\u00a0Konikpaarden\u00a0<\/em>elsewhere, but shoot some of the\u00a0edelherten<\/em>, because there is no other way.<\/p>\n

But this is only an advice. What is actually going to happen is supposedly going to be decided next month. At least before the\u00a0zomerreces\u00a0<\/em>(summer recess), they want to have taken the\u00a0besluit\u00a0<\/em>(decision).<\/p>\n

Below is a video of\u00a0Arjen Lubach<\/a> explaining the situation in his satirical show\u00a0Zondag met Lubach<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9VuLM4LLJOg<\/p>\n

What do you think of this situation? Is there a similar situation in your country? Let me know in the comments below!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

You might remember our post on Flevoland, a Dutch province that was created from scratch – literally. The land did not exist before. Part of that creation of land was also the the creation of a\u00a0natuurgebied\u00a0(nature reserve), called the\u00a0Oostvaardersplassen.\u00a0With a size of 5600 hectares (about 14,000 acres), it is an important\u00a0natuurgebied\u00a0not just for the Netherlands…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":5593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3590,27711,27714],"tags":[2332,506129,179],"class_list":["post-5589","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dutch-language","category-dutch-vocabulary-2","category-news-2","tag-nature","tag-nature-park","tag-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t