ISLAND OF WILDERNESS, WEALTH AND WISTFULNESS

The last surviving island in the southwest part of the Netherlands is to become a unique nature reserve. Tiengemeten Island, together with the Ventjagerplaten and Spuimonding, will make up an area of more than 4000 hectares of protected countryside. The island is a real gain for eco-visitors. Peaceful, spacious and unspoiled and close to a major urban area. This brochure explains the plans, with the possibilities and the constraints. It describes the future of an island that was once owned by corporations with very ambitious construction plans, but is now the property of the Society for the Preservation of Nature (Natuurmonumenten) in the Netherlands, where nature can take its course and people can find peace and quiet.

As long ago as 1990 Tiengemeten was recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries as an important new nature reserve. The island - at present mainly used as arable land - was incorporated in the Ecological Main Structure (EHS), the network of existing and new nature reserves in the Netherlands. In 1994 the Province of South Holland designated the island as a nature development area. The Society for the Preservation of Nature in the Netherlands has owned the island since 1997. At the same time all the plans of project developers to use the island as a recreation park or for the storage of polluted dredging spoil were rejected once and for all.

All pictures made by Klaas Lukas