Tangible
Based on counts from many volunteers and CBS analyses, Red Lists are compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Quality and Nature. ‘The Red List shows how a specific group of animals or plants is doing in our country,’ explains De Zeeuw. ‘We work with different threat levels such as ‘Extinct’ or ‘Vulnerable’ to say something tangible about biodiversity in our country.’ This is very important, say both De Zeeuw and Borkent. ‘It is important to factually substantiate the state of nature,’ explains Borkent. ‘A Red List shows this well and avoids gut feelings.’Unexpected Source
To determine how species have developed in the Netherlands, the present is compared with the reference year 1950. ‘This year serves as a reference point for all Red Lists,’ says Borkent. ‘It was chosen because in the 1950s we were just before several major industrial and agricultural developments and nature monitoring started around that time.’ You should not take the year too literally, according to Borkent. Around 1990, counting birds and butterflies by volunteers really took off. ‘Before that, we have to rely on incidental datasets,’ says Borkent.
These datasets can come from scientists but also from unexpected sources. ‘Sometimes someone finds an old diary where a passionate family member kept butterfly observations,’ says De Zeeuw. ‘That is a wonderful find that we can use together with butterfly experts to get an idea of the butterfly population at that place and time.’ The Red Lists are living documents. ‘Every time a new dataset is found, we can make the insight more accurate,’ explains De Zeeuw. ‘You are never finished.’
Depoliticized
Policy officer Menno de Ridder from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Quality and Nature is involved in making the Red Lists. ‘We update the lists every ten years,’ says De Ridder. ‘It is an important, depoliticized instrument to base nature policy on.’ Red Lists are always the same. ‘Nothing changes in the criteria. They have a high factual, scientific character and can only be interpreted in one way.’Provinces have a legal obligation under the Environmental Act to protect endangered species. How they fulfill this task is largely up to them. ‘For example, a province can decide that a construction project cannot proceed because of bats on that specific land,’ says De Ridder.
The next Red Lists to be updated are those of mushrooms and dragonflies. ‘We look at social developments to determine which Red List we prioritize,’ explains De Ridder. ‘We have long known that surface water quality is poor, which affects animals like dragonflies. So we want to know how those species are doing now.’
