LAND-DEVELOPMENT POLICY AND THE CHANCES FOR LOCAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES IN THE NETHERLANDS - THE OOIJPOLDER CASE

Although the legal basis for endogenous or self-reliant development has existed since 1985 (Land Development Act), rural development planning in The Netherlands has hardly formed links with local and regional initiatives. Dutch rural policy was very much directed towards improving the conditions for agricultural production until recently. Problems of rural depopulation and deprivation were seen as a temporary situation in the process of regional integration into larger wholes. The lack of any political tradition of developing integrated regional plans, is further illustrated with a case study of a small region in The Netherlands. In the process of designing regional plans for integrating agriculture, nature conservation, landscape planning and economic infrastructure, local participation was discouraged in several ways. The region's prospects were already largely decided at higher political levels, and bureaucratic state organizations, responsible for the final implementation of the regional land development plan, were incapable or unwilling to adjust their approach to local initiatives. Local participation in development seems to depend to a large extent on stimulation by higher political levels.