Reclamation of Land
The Naardermeer is a successful and early example of a polder that has evolved into a nature area. The area has been wholly or partially reclaimed on three occasions, but because of the seepage of salt water in the ground the owners decided to abandon these attempts in 1886.

Society for the Preservation of Nature
In the first development plan, a "central watercourse and road" divided the polder into two roughly equal parts. Most of the parcels of land lay at right angles to this middle line. The later parcellation plans strongly resembled this first large-scale division and the old polder layout can still be recognized in the landscape. In 1904, a number of individual nature conservationists, including Jac.P. Thijsse, protested against the intention of the City of Amsterdam to use the polder as a dumping ground for household refuse. In 1905 they founded the Vereniging tot Behoud van Natuurmonumenten (Society for the Preservation of Natural Monuments), which announced the dawn of non-governmental nature protection. The society is now one of the most important opinion-makers in the field of spatial planning.

Active preservation
For more than seventy years, Natuurmonumenten's chief objective was to preserve the Naardermeer in the state in which they found it. In its early years, the society's members could only visit the Naardermeer after submitting a written request. In the late 1970s, nature conservation changed. Natuurmonumenten now allows more people to visit, which means that there is space for nature development in tandem with recreation.

Theme New Nature

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