Nature enhancement North Sea
Nature enhancement North Sea
Today, Minister Van der Wal (LNV) announced that the Dutch government will launch a new programme which focuses on improving the protection and enhancement of nature in the North Sea. She made her announcement at the five-year anniversary of The Rich North Sea in Amsterdam.
Minister Christianne van der Wal: “I am pleased that with the North Sea Nature Enhancement Programme we can finally get going to continue working on more under water nature and in offshore wind farms. We have reserved 150 million euros for this from the Climate Fund. “
Public-private partnership
The North Sea Nature Enhancement programme will be a public-private partnership between government, science, companies and civil society organisations. The programme looks for new opportunities for more nature in the North Sea. This is needed urgently, because nature in the North Sea is under increasing pressure from fishing, wind energy, shipping and military training areas. The North Sea is used intensively by many sectors.
“It is vitally important we, together, maintain and further expand the energy to achieve not only our climate goals, but also our nature goals,” says Minister Van der Wal.
Nature recovery and enhancement
The measures within the new programme are focused on the recovery of species that are in trouble. This not only concerns underwater animal species such as fish, marine mammals, sharks and rays, but also birds and bats. The organisations involved are also working on options to recover under-water and seabed nature such as reefs and oyster beds.
The North Sea Nature Enhancement programme aims to achieve a healthy, resilient and nature-rich North Sea with room for natural processes and sustainable use. The programme will finance various pilots and related activities. This also requires practical experimentation and international scale knowledge exchange.
Within ecological boundaries
The North Sea Agreement (2020) and the North Sea policy program 2022-2027 had already agreed with the Ministries of Infrastructure and Water Management, and Economic Affairs and Climate, that wind energy and nature development should go hand in hand. The development of sustainable energy must fit within the ecological boundaries of the North Sea. The North Sea Nature Enhancement Program has been set up to improve the North Sea’s nature and supplements the current legally required protection measures for biodiversity and ecosystems.
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