National Park De Hoge Veluwe (The Netherlands)

The Hoge Veluwe National Park is the largest interconnected, actively managed, privately owned nature reserve in the Netherlands. It is almost entirely dependent of its 600,000 yearly paying visitors for its survival. The Park is a unique combination of nature, art and architecture. Within the Natura 2000 area of the Veluwe, the Park is an important source of biodiversity. The management targets a sustainable Nature management with public access while keeping a decision making and financial independence.
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The EU’s LIFE+ ‘Land is Forever’ Project:
60% of Europe’s acreage is privately owned. It has become clear that the EU nature conservation goals cannot be accomplished without the engagement of private landowners. The project ‘Land Is For Ever’ aims to expand the implementation of successful management models for private landowners to make nature conservation on their land durable on the long term. By sharing examples of innovative structures and programs of private conservation initiatives, landowners all over Europe get inspired and motivated to invest in nature conservation on their land. Through dialogue with landowners and field tests in different EU member states, this project builds the basis for effective policy recommendations to support private land conservation initiatives at a larger scale. The bottom-up approach of this project to policy development makes the project unique and gives the recommendations that emerge a great chance of success in the future.
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This project has received funding from the European Union’s LIFE programme under grant agreement LIFE17PREBE001