This project examines a fundamental aspect of human interactions with the natural environment by exploring the role of historical ecological change and the ways in which humans perceive it (or overlook it).
Existing knowledge about nature and biodiversity has rarely been used to map developments within nature over long time scales. We propose that two main obstacles are to blame: First, human actions and their consequences for nature and the living environment are viewed from a human short-term perspective. Second, there is only very limited cooperation and coordination between the various disciplines, in order to obtain a picture of the influence of humans on nature over long time scales. Disciplines that could contribute to this issue are history, ecology, but also urban planning and landscape architecture. The proposed project provides a new step in this development with experts in these fields in the context of the valuable Naturalis collections of Dutch biodiversity. We propose to use such museum collections to reconstruct the ecological history of three pilot locations with an inter-disciplinary view, and engage people within their own landscapes in collaboration with IVN. This approach has not previously applied in the Netherlands or in studies on Dutch landscapes and ecosystems.
