The Danish government has presented its first ever long-term strategic plan for Denmark’s nature in a bid to improve the nation’s natural habitat looking ahead towards 2020.

‘Naturplan Danmark’ was today revealed by the prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, and the environment minister, Kirsten Brosbøl. It details plans to transform 25,000 hectares of land into nature and to generate 10 million more nature visits from the Danes by 2020.

“The government wants a Denmark that has a balance between modern lifestyle, agriculture, nature and leisure time,” Brosbøl said in a press release.

“The Danes are crazy about nature and we must dare to use it, but not to its detriment. The nature is worn out and under great pressure, which Naturplan Danmark aims to rectify so we can leave our children with better nature than what we were left by our parents.”

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Buying up land
Recent research has shown that every fifth plant and animal in Denmark is considered rare, has disappeared or is close to disappearing, and that nature is under pressure in a number of areas in Denmark.

With the Naturplan Danmark plan (here in Danish), the government has earmarked 195 million kroner to various efforts aimed at rebuilding Denmark’s nature from 2016-2018, including a Green Denmark Map, which outlines how nature can be improved by 2050.

Additionally, the government has allocated 875 million kroner to the newly-presented nature fund Den Danske Naturfond, which is tasked with buying up nature in co-operation with two funds, Villum Fonden and Aage V Jensen Naturfond.