Agricultural areas

Agricultural areas are rural areas whose main purpose is agriculture. Like the flora in forests, dunes, health land, grass land and marshes, the flora in agricultural areas is measured in the national flora measurement grid (Landelijke Meetnet Flora). This comprises a grid of around 10 thousand sampling points at fixed locations in which all species of plants are counted every four years. In addition to Statistics Netherlands, the provinces, the national water management authority (Rijkswaterstaat) and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency collaborate on this project. The project started with a few provinces in 1999. Since 2002 all provinces are included in the grid.

All nature statistics, including the national flora measurement grid, are financed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs.