Bas Arts featured on Brabant News about accessibility to nature

The Dutch news channel Omroep Brabant interviewed Prof. Bas Arts of the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group on 13 May about the extent to which nature areas be made accessible to the public. The increase in visitors to these areas has resulted in more damages to the nature. This causes nature organisations to enforce forest protection measures. While Prof. Arts agrees with the protection of vulnerable areas, he feels that the public should still have access to these since the natural landscape belongs to everyone. As such, he does not agree with the proposal to close the Biesbosch area to the public. "If we make nature even more inaccessible to people, they would have less contact with it, and this would undermine the support for nature protection." Instead, efforts should be put into moderating visitor flows. These measures could include having carparks only in the least vulnerable sites for the general public, while still giving access to more remote areas to genuine nature lovers. You can view the Dutch report here.

Prof. Arts was also featured on the radio broadcast (in Dutch).