Professor Tasman Crowe:

I agree that the Netherlands, putting the current situation to one side, has been progressive and proactive in advancing that agenda of taking care of the environment. It is a very concentrated place in a very vulnerable situation. The imperative has been there but the approach has been very consultative. That is a hallmark that has come up repeatedly. People have been engaged. Environmental decision-making involves a well-structured public dialogue. It is not top-down. There has been a lot of buy-in. As was said, things have become more challenging there. It has also been well-resourced. Utrecht has been a particularly prominent city in driving forward a biodiversity agenda. It is scaling up the small, community-led initiatives, widening the take-up and pushing them. It has recruited large numbers of people to the biodiversity unit of the municipal council, which will carry things forward in that way. There is a sense that we lag behind.