From the Veluwe to the dunes: what we call nature has often been shaped by centuries of hunting. Eugenie van Heijgen, a researcher at Wageningen University & Research, shows in her dissertation how decisive these hunting landscapes are for our perception of nature. "We also regard typical game animals as ecosystem builders."
For many people, the concepts of "nature" and "hunting" are opposites. Hunting sometimes stirs up strong emotions, and every year there is criticism on the Royal Family's hunting practices. "Negative associations with 'trophy hunting' often fuel the debate on hunting," says Eugenie van Heijgen, who received her PhD this spring at the Cultural Geography and Forest and Nature Conservation Policy chair groups. "This goes hand in hand with the notion that hunting does not belong at all in natural landscapes." In her dissertation, she casts both ideas in a different light by introducing the concept of the hunting landscape. "What we in the Netherlands call nature, such as the Veluwe and the animals living there, has largely been shaped by hunting, both past and present."
How many Dutch people think about hunting stems from hunting's place in history. "Since the Middle Ages, areas like the Veluwe were designed as hunting grounds for the elite. They had the right to hunt and protected game against poaching by common folk. The idea that even today wealthy, white men hunt for pleasure provokes resistance," says Van Heijgen. That resistance is further reinforced by hunting in foreign nature parks, where the colonial context plays a role. It is mainly wealthy Westerners who come there to hunt for large sums of money.
The centuries-old hunting tradition has been visibly embedded in the Gelderland forests since the Middle Ages. Hunting lodges were built, special roads laid out, and fences built around certain areas. Over time, various legal constructions were also established to ensure that the nobility could hunt. Deer and wild boar enjoyed a form of protection, and the areas where they lived were managed.
From the 17th century onwards, Dutch stadtholders bought large tracts of land that they managed for hunting. Later, wealthy industrialists and the Royal Family followed their example. Even today, the numbers of wild animals are intensively managed. Populations are monitored by hunters through counts, and every year a decision is made on how much "culling" should take place.
Why have we been so long and so strongly connected with these kinds of hunting landscapes?
"For most of their existence, humans lived as hunter-gatherers. Spatially, humans have been changing landscapes since the Stone Age, for example by building walls to enable the hunting of large hoofed animals. These structures led people to settle in one place, giving rise to socio-political structures. Think of ownership, land use, and other social relations. At the same time, the lives of the animals and their relationship with humans changed. The first hunting landscapes already arose back then.
"Hunting also plays a role in cultures across the world, because it connects people with their natural environment. For instance, hunting influences animist cultures, which believe in spirituality in all living and non-living things and maintain a harmonious relationship with them. In Western cultures too, hunting has played an important role, for example in the emergence of the nature conservation movement."
We have mainly spoken about the Veluwe. Are there other hunting landscapes in the Netherlands?
"Hunting landscapes can be found everywhere. In the dunes, for instance. These are now protected nature reserves aimed at preserving a treeless landscape with ever-changing sand dunes. This image is based on a landscape designed in the 13th century for hunting rabbits. They were protected, and the vegetation was kept short especially for the rabbits by letting cattle graze there. Now we see these rabbits as important ecosystem builders. They graze and burrow, thereby creating a diverse dune landscape. So what we now see as a healthy ecosystem was once an intensively managed landscape, created by and for rabbit hunting."
So, a hunting landscape may even be beneficial for biodiversity. Is that the case elsewhere too?
"Hunting has created a specific ecosystem in which certain animals, plants, and humans have a place, and others do not. These ecosystems are often focused on huntable game and provide for their needs, but also create conditions under which they can be hunted. Duck decoys, for example, are ponds designed entirely for catching ducks. But these places also attracted not only huntable ducks but also other birds and (aquatic) animals. They became genuine hotspots of biodiversity in an intensively managed agricultural landscape and sometimes still are today.
"In some cases, hunting has led to a form of species discrimination: some animals are regarded as more important than others - ironically precisely because they are hunted. Take the wild boar, for instance. They were reintroduced in the Netherlands in the early 20th century for the purpose of hunting, but today they are also valued for their role as 'ecosystem builders': through their rooting they contribute to more variation in nature. At the same time, large numbers of boar are regarded as a threat to that very same biodiversity. They eat rare animals such as the viviparous lizard and the stag beetle. To keep their numbers in check - to protect nature and to prevent traffic accidents - hunting is still deployed as the main tool."
Does the return of the wolf change anything about these hunting landscapes?
"In hunting landscapes, certain animals, such as boar, deer, rabbits and ducks, shape the landscape, together with hunters. Predators that hunt the same species are therefore undesirable. Wolves also operate very differently from hunters, who follow a Fauna Management Plan specifying when hunting may take place, how many animals, and which age categories. A hunter once told me that wolves were 'bad managers.' This illustrates how wolves go their own way and disrupt the existing hunting regime.
"Of course, there are many different voices in the debate about the wolf, but its influence on the hunting landscape is certainly one of them. The wolf breaks through existing systems. This challenges us to reflect on our relationship with nature as shaped by the past."
What can we learn from hunters?
"Compared to the past, people feel less connected to nature, and that poses a threat to ourselves and other life forms. Hunting provides a connection with nature, but it is a complex practice with many rough edges. In any case, it is still very much alive. That is why we should take hunting - and the connection with nature it brings - seriously. "Moreover, hunting teaches us that we cannot take today's nature for granted. 'Natural' landscapes are far more managed than we often think. Hunting has played a major role in that. In the future too, the role of hunting will be determined by how we imagine the Dutch landscape."
Photo by: Mevrouw Kiek
