Past October 21, LIFE INSULAR (LIFE20 NAT/ES/001007) carried out a technical visit to uptake the main results developed by the LIFE Amsterdam Dune Project (LIFE11 NAT/NL/000776), in the ecological system of the dunes of Amsterdam (The Netherlands). The visit was made by members of IBADER (on behalf of LIFE INSULAR), and of Waternet (on behalf of the LIFE Amsterdam Dune Project), both coordinators of each LIFE project.
Waternet is a Netherlands public company responsible for water-related services. Among its main responsibilities is the management of the Amsterdam Dunes, a natural area of 3,400 ha, which is part of the Netherlands Natura 2000 Network, and which is the main source of drinking water supply for the city of Amsterdam and its surroundings. In this way, on the occasion of the LIFE Amsterdam Dune Project, Waternet carried out measures to reverse the effects of drought, eutrophication and the presence of IAS, in order to create the right conditions to later achieve the restoration of natural dune habitats and types of wetlands present in the area.
The visit made it possible to transmit the solutions adopted and the lessons learned by the Netherlands project, as well as to compare the strategies developed by both projects and to reach a point of common agreement: to reject the use of herbicides in the fight against IAS in areas with a high fragility due to vulnerability of the natural values hosted, especially when it comes to natural or semi-natural wetland habitat types.
