Anyone opening the Rijk van Nijmegen business card will find ‘the enchanting nature of the Overasseltse and Hatertse Vennen’ as their first visit tip. Thanks to the Forestry Commission, which has restored the heaths and fens to their former glory with numerous interventions. Apart from hikers and cyclists, this also attracts commercial parties who smell an opportunity. For instance, Thermen Berendonk is crowning its ‘100% sustainable wellness experience’ with a brand new hotel with 102 rooms and two restaurants, Landal Roompot has plans for a holiday park, and several camping farmers are also attracting new guests to the area.
How to reconcile all interests in this ecologically vulnerable area? In working practice, such a question is in the hands of a wide range of expertises, whereas in university education students tend to study in a single discipline: one becomes a lawyer, another an ecologist and a third an environmental scientist. In a new educational initiative, these three disciplines join forces, giving participating students a much better idea of the challenges they will soon face as professionals.
Preparing for work field
Joseline Houwman, Healthy Landscape project manager and one of the lecturers of the new programme, points to the traineeships with which the professional field often has to retrain graduates, precisely also to enrich their professional knowledge with insights from other disciplines. 'This new programme is a kind of traineeship already during the programme. This way, students are better prepared for what the professional field demands.'
In the new undergraduate course to be launched this month, 16 students from three faculties will come together to work on the same assignment: to design a number of future scenarios for the Hatertse Vennen within three months. ‘This way they get to know each other's language,’ Houwman names one of the learning effects. 'The lawyer learns better how an ecologist talks, the ecologist comes into contact with an administrative expert's view of the world. What common language is needed to understand each other?'
Concern for nature values
Thus, the ecologist almost naturally turns his eye to the natural values of red heath, and to the biodiverse richness of the area. One of the principles in the scenario to be designed by the students, is concern for these values. ‘We are not prescribing anything,’ emphasises ecologist Constant Swinkels, initiator of the programme together with lawyer Simon Tans. ‘But the students will have to include the concern for ecological values.’ The fens lack the stamp of Natura 2000, and are therefore not maximally protected by law from encroachment. 'So you face the challenge of nevertheless designing a framework to protect the nature values. Without all those species, this area loses its unique character.'
Friends of the Fens
Guided by five teachers, the 16 students will spend three months immersing themselves in the area, including talks with all kinds of experts: from the Friends of the Fens to camping farmers, from the Forestry Commission to environmental experts from the three adjoining municipalities and the province. This was followed by the presentation of the scenarios.
The initiators emphasise the particularity of the programme, which ties in with the university's aim to introduce every student to sustainability during their studies. Such scenario design already happens within some programmes of the Radboud Honours Academy, an extra activity on top of the studies. ‘This programme is integrated into the study, and that across three faculties,’ Swinkels praises its quality. ‘This can become a model for much more education at this university.’
Read more about sustainability in education at Radboud University.