In a small country like the Netherlands, many nature reserves  are separated by roads, industrial zones or railroads - which means it can be very difficult for animals to move safely from one area to the other.

However, there is a solution - the 'ecoduct', a bridge that connects separate natural areas.

Several ecoducts have been built in recent years in the Netherlands. The longest and widest nature bridge in the world is located in the Gooi area near the Dutch city of Hilversum, 30 kilometres south east of Amsterdam. The bridge connects two nature reserves that used to be separated by a busy road, a railway terminal, a golf course and an industrial zone. This made it impossible for animals like foxes, badgers or rabbits to cross the area safely.

The ecoduct is one kilometre long and is over a hundred metres wide. It was constructed in 2006, costing 14 million euros.

Busy crossing
New research shows that in the past three years it has become a busy crossing. For two years, volunteers working for the Gooi nature reserve counted the number of animal crossings by using purpose built sandbeds, on which they could ‘read’ the trails left by passing animals. Not only did they find prints of common animals like rabbits, hares and deer, but also of foxes, weasels and badgers – animals that were very rarely seen in the Gooi area and even near extinction in most parts of the Netherlands.
 

Breeding grounds
This proves how essential it is to connect nature reserves, says Paul Hulsink, who is a guide for the Gooi nature reserve. ‘Animals – big and small - cross this bridge daily, which shows this area has become an important part of their living and breeding grounds. We hoped that would happen, but we hadn’t expected it to happen so shortly after constructing the ecoduct’.
 

Trains and cars
The success of the ecoduct may surprise walkers or cyclists who cross the bridge. It’s not exactly a haven of peace and quiet, as one might expect in a natural environment like this. There is the noise of a very busy road that runs underneath the crossing, every few minutes a train passes by and there’s an industrial zone only a few hundred metres away. And if that isn’t enough, planes traveling to and from nearby Amsterdam Airport can be clearly heard.

‘Yes, it is quite crowded here in this part of the Netherlands’, Mr Hulsink agrees. ‘It’s a small area which we all have to share. Don’t forget that there are 180,000 people living and working in this region, so we use every spare metre here’.

This is why natural areas in the Netherlands – especially in this part of the country - are small and not very well connected. ‘That explains why the Netherlands is the front runner when it comes to building ecoducts’, Mr Hulsink says. ‘We simply have to build these connections to give animals larger habitats in order to survive. If this ecoduct hadn’t been built, many species here simply would have disappeared’.
 

Gateway
It’s no wonder then that the regional council and the various nature and wildlife organisations are working together to build more connections between natural areas in this region. By doing this, the ultimate goal will be creating a gateway to the large Heuvelrug nature reserve nearby, which covers an area of approximately 23,000 hectares.

Even though the Gooi nature reserve is very close to human life, it is not under threat. Once one has crossed the ecoduct, there are large heathlands on one side and woodlands on the other. And as the sounds of urban life slowly fade in the distance, one finally feels there is some space left for nature in this very crowded part of the country.

Listen to a Newsline report here: