Netherlands

Convenant on recreational use of forest and nature areas for Nordic Walking

Location: National scale

Year established: 2006

Ownership: Staatsbosbeheer (National Forest Service), Natuurmonumenten (Nature Monuments), several national sport organisations

Background

Recently, Nordic Walking is introduced in The Netherlands. Different from the Scandinavian countries, where Nordic Walking is considered as a summer variant of ‘langlaufen’, Nordic Walking in the Netherlands is mainly considered as an active way of movement, improving health and well-being. In a short period this sport has become very popular, especially by elderly people (50+). This development fits perfectly in actual national health care policy, which promote citizens to be more active.

Managers of nature areas experienced an enormous increase of the number of practitioners in a short period. Nordic Walkers prefer to walk in a natural environment, but in the same time they like to achieve a sportive result. They prefer paths, that differ from the regular paths, as regards distance and routing. To meet these special demands, nature organisations had to do something. In order to avoid innumerable negotiations between local Nordic Walking clubs or sport orgisations and local nature managers, a convenant on national level is drawn up between a number of big national sportassociations and the 2 big nature organisations in the Netherlands: Staatsbosbeheer (National Forest Service) and Natuurmonumenten (Nature Monuments). The advantage of this convenant is that parties have clear expectations form each other in advance.

Description

In the national convenant appointments are made, referring to:

• The design and management of Nordic Walking paths (including sign-posting); usually costs are at the expense of the sportorganisations.
• Special activities and (commercial) use of Nordic Walking routes. A fee has to be paid for use by groups (> 50 people)
• Rules of conduct. The sportassociations inform their members about the rules of conduct in nature, that are applicable in general.
• Publicity and promotion.

What to avoid

On national level appointments on mainline can be identified, that can be considered as guidelines for added agreements on a local level. On local level always supplementary appointments have to be made, depending on local circumstances. That’s why a national agreement cannot and should not include detailed appointments.

Further contact

Staatsbosbeheer (National Forest Service)

J.A. (Jan) Blok

P.O. Box 1300 3970 BH Driebergen (NL)

Tel. 0031 306926343

E-mail: j.blok (at) staatsbosbeheer.nl

Website: www.staatsbosbeheer.nl