Dutch nature organisations should merge into a single body known as Natural Heritage in order to cut costs, the head of the motoring and tourism organisation ANWB says in Monday’s Trouw.

A merger would lead to the loss of some 1,500 of 5,000 jobs, reducing pressure on the organisations’ budgets, Guido van Woerkom told the paper, quoting government figures.
Government policy has led to a reduction in subsidies for nature organisations and personnel is the biggest single cost, the ANWB chairman points out.
To kick off, forestry group Staatsbosbeheer, national park institute Natuurmonumenten and the provincial landscape group Provinciale Landschappen should merge at a regional level, Van Woerkom suggests. Later other organisations could join in.
‘Does a walker care if he or she is on land run by the forestry commission or a national park?’ he said. ‘All that matters is nature is kept tidy and he or she can enjoy it.’