Environmental policy in the Netherlands has reached a remarkable evolutionary stage, in which policy‐makers have moved beyond merely defensive considerations of preserving and protecting the environment to encompass proactive measures for ‘nature development’ by recovering wasteland and ‘returning’ it to nature. However, this new phase of environmental engineering is not without its own risks, notably with respect to its cultural assumptions. The principles of Dutch nature development involve a dubious form of cultural politics, in which the science is used to impose a particular cultural...

Environmental policy in the Netherlands has reached a remarkable evolutionary stage, in which policy‐makers have moved beyond merely defensive considerations of preserving and protecting the environment to encompass proactive measures for ‘nature development’ by recovering wasteland and ‘returning’ it to nature. However, this new phase of environmental engineering is not without its own risks, notably with respect to its cultural assumptions. The principles of Dutch nature development involve a dubious form of cultural politics, in which the science is used to impose a particular cultural view of nature upon local communities, thereby excluding other views. Upon analysis, it becomes clear that science provides no adequate basis for this, and that a more consultative and democratic process is needed to clarify the range of solutions and scenarios that is available. Environmental politics should aim to address the question of what sort of relationship to nature people really want.