Welcome
to my site, where you will find lots of pictures, taken during my frequent walks
in parks, forests (what's left of them that is) and nature areas in
the western part of Flanders, Belgium.
As
I said, there's only a little bit left of our once great forests (see chart
Ferraris 1770), which now cover only about 6% of the West-Flanders area,
which is well below the European average of 30% forest and "nature area" coverage and
each year, these "patches" get smaller and smaller.
One
of the causes of this decline has been the state-subsidised, intensifying growth
of the agricultural industry in order to reach new and bigger consuming markets
in Europe and beyond. Although this is now no longer legal, this does not bring
back the forests that have already been lost.
Fortunately,
in the last couple of decades, a growing number of people are becoming more and
more aware of the importance of the conservation of what nature areas we
have left, and the importance of nature as a means for people to get back in
touch with "mother earth", to be able to get out of the "rat
race" once in a while, to be able to feel whole again.
