A sustainable future in practice

Research conducted by Wageningen University & Research (WUR) paves the way for European standards, for sustainable materials, for example. A standard is a voluntary agreement, between producers and the EU, for example, and could concern such issues as what materials may be called “bioplastics”. To this end, a standard includes a description of procedures, circumstances and duration under which the bio-based content is to be tested. Precisely these procedures and tests are based on Wageningen research.

These bio-based plastics measuring methods were co-designed by Maarten van der Zee, a senior researcher at Wageningen Food & Biobased Research. They have now been included in the European Standard. The method is as follows: Plants contain trace amounts of the rare and radioactive substance carbon isotope-14, which is not found in petroleum. This enables us to determine that a plastic that does not contain the isotope must be fossil-based. If it does, it is a more sustainable, alternative, organic-based material.

Research for sustainable fisheries

WUR scientists also provide advice on sustainable governance. For example, to make fisheries more sustainable. Policy-makers want to know how much of a certain type of fish may be caught before the species becomes threatened. Pursuant to two large platforms, ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Seas) and SPRFMO (South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation), scientists of Wageningen Marine Research provide science-based recommendations.

This calls for much data, part of which is provided by the fisheries sector. All countries where a particular type of fish may be caught deliver data. Scientists also undertake trips to gather data for research purposes. With an estimate of the number of births and deaths, the researchers calculate the size of the fish population and the pressure it suffers from fishery activities. Per type of fish, of course.

Based on this information, scientists provide recommendations with regards to the maximum sustainable harvest. This advice is used by all the fisheries ministries within the EU to determine how much fish of any given type may be caught by European fishers.

Nature in a new perspective

Sustainable governance rests on sustainable ideas. To generate these ideas, we must sometimes change our perspective completely. Scientists of WUR’s Environmental Sciences Group had a new perspective. They wondered: what would the Netherlands look like in 2120 if nature and society collaborated? That was the key component of their view on the Netherlands, to approach all the different parts of society and nature, such as agriculture, economy, urban development and biodiversity, climate and water as a whole. Thus, challenges pertaining to, for example, climate change, loss of biodiversity, sustainable energy and tourism, become a single coherent issue.

The ‘Netherlands 2120’ perspective reached policy-makers at a national, regional and local level. Researchers collaborate with parties in the field on several follow-up projects that are to further develop and implement the perspective. For Noord-Brabant province, among others, scientists developed a so-called climate-robust future perspective for the characteristic landscape. This perspective described ways in which the municipalities and province could work with the landscape in light of climate change and how this might benefit agriculture, nature, security and living.

Thus, Wageningen scientists contribute to the sustainable future that is currently being developed with new ideas, sustainable advice and innovative science.