When Staatsbosbeheer was founded in 1899, the Netherlands was severely deforested and there was huge demand for timber. During the first thirty years of its existence, Staatsbosbeheer brought the Netherlands’ woodlands back up to scratch and planted commercial forests. In the late 1960s, the Netherlands could no longer compete with timber producers in larger countries. Changes in ideas on nature and the environment led to growing criticism on commercial forestry. Since then, we have focused on the development of natural, mixed forests.

In 1928, nature conservancy was officially made a Staatsbosbeheer task. During the 1970s, nature management acquired a more proactive approach: nature restoration and development. Nature that is given the room to develop is healthier than nature that can only continue to exist thanks to human intervention.
Our landscape structuring task meant that for decades Staatsbosbeheer was a major influence on the shaping of the Dutch landscape. As a manager of large parts of that landscape, we currently focus on maintaining landscape values, regional identity and cultural-historical elements.