The initial set-up of the research project consisted of creating a project website and a Data Management Plan, as necessary preparatory steps. The researcher, freshly re-starting his academic career, gathered a lot of experience in the daily technical management of the research action, in research data management, in re-establishing his academic network and organising a scientific workshop in the midst of a global health emergency situation. The researcher visited all necessary archives in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, consulted the necessary archive documents, journal and newspaper articles pertaining to the work of the societies and organisations under research.
The research results point towards a marked difference in processes of governance and policy-making between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom between 1930 and 1960. In the Netherlands, conservationist organisations opted for a strategy of working through informal deals, advisory committees, and negotiated agreements with government departments and state agencies, rather than pressing for official legislation. In the United Kingdom, civil society actors continued to urge for such legislation, but internal disagreement about the correct definitions, objectives, and administrative arrangements for national parks and nature reserves complicated a successful implementation of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act after 1949. The policy-making habits, strategies, and consultation structures with state actors were decisive factors for the action repertoire of the environmental groups in the different countries since the 1970s.
Other scientific, peer-reviewed articles identified a profound colonial bias in the discourse of early conservationists, a conspicuous misrepresentation of Catholics in the nature conservation movement in the Netherlands, and a number of serious misunderstandings between Dutch conservationists, their Belgian counterparts, and the agricultural sector. The researcher presented papers based on various aspects of this research at four scientific conferences.
Besides, the researcher produced four magazine articles, one public lecture, two blog posts and three smaller online articles for a larger audience. In terms of dissemination and communication, an interdisciplinary scientific workshop about ‘Nature and nature conservation in the Netherlands during the Second World War’, held in Nijmegen in November 2021 and attended by scientists, historians, cultural heritage specialists, and representatives of nature conservation societies, had the greatest impact. The workshop was the starting point of a new interdisciplinary network about nature and nature conservation in the Second World War and will be the first reference point for future research on this topic in the Netherlands.
