The Ministry of Transport and Public Works is responsible for the construction, maintenance and use of the national network of main roads and waterways. The infrastructure is one of main causes of habitat fragmentation. Therefore various measures were introduced in the seventies and eighties to mitigate the negative impacts of roads on fauna; these include warning signs, wildlife warning reflectors, fences, badger pipes, adapted culverts and, recently, ecoducts (overpasses for fauna). Such activities to mitigate habitat fragmentation caused by infrastructure have been incorporated into Dutch government policy. In order to further support these measures, the Ministry has set up a range of research activities. One research topic, for example, concerns the location of intersections between the national ecological network and the existing and planned network of main roads and waterways. It also involved collecting additional information on the ecological functions and species composition of the intersected areas. The final objective is to set priorities for mitigating measures, and to optimize utilization of resources provided by the Dutch government.
Abstract