Increasing biodiversity

Biodiversity is under pressure worldwide. Over 35,000 plant and animal species are facing extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This is why the university wants to help increase the biodiversity at local, national and global levels. By 2035, we want to be a green campus by means of enhancing and restoring the local biodiversity. 

How are we going to do that?

  • more ecological design and maintenance of the campus
  • protecting animals and plants
  • reducing the ecological footprint 
  • more education on and research into biodiversity
  • increase impact

  • More biodiversity on campus

    Together with research firm Dactylis, the university has drawn up a design and maintenance plan to restore biodiversity in the USP. In it, the area is a landscape where greenery is connected to each other and to the natural areas around. We will take various measures in the USP area until 2035 to increase biodiversity, such as ecological management of roadsides and lawns. As a university, we want to green our own area to restore, strengthen and sustainably use biodiversity locally.

  • Interactive road map for more biodiversity

    Biodiversity is about all life forms on the USP. All plant and animal species depend on each other in one way or another. They keep each other in balance. Utrecht University itself manages an area of 350 hectares: the Utrecht Science Park (USP). This area has an essential role as a connecting element between the surrounding nature areas. Examples include herb-rich verges, nature-friendly banks, species-rich fields, fruit orchards in a car-free, energy-generating area and the Botanical Gardens as a green heart.

  • Protection of animals and plants

    The university actively protects the habitat of plants and animals. We are making the area more accessible by redesigning and managing it. This way, more plants and animals will feel at home in the Utrecht Science Park. For instance, we create hiding places for martens, roe deer and badgers and create nature-friendly banks for frogs, toads and salamanders. We provide flyways for bats and create flowery grasslands, which we manage ecologically. In this way we increase biodiversity. Utrecht University has appointed twenty icon species. We monitor these animal and plant species and habitats, and improve where this is possible. Are you curious which species these are and what they contribute to the area? View the icon species in the gallery.

  • Veterinary Medicine’s farm works to increase biodiversity

    At De Tolakker, ten hectares of grassland is making way for ecological corridors and ditches with nature-friendly banks. This is possible because the Faculty has reduced the size of its dairy herd and will therefore need less cattle feed. Farmer Jorn Vernooij ploughs less deeply, sows herb mixtures in some fields and uses a drone to check for lapwing eggs before he mows. Meanwhile, biologists are studying how such measures benefit biodiversity. “Practise what you teach."

Increase impact

Besides this, we want to have more impact on this theme as Utrecht University by means of more support for the restoration of biodiversity and the sharing of knowledge. This way, we contribute to the protection and restoration of ecosystems, and reach more people who can devote themselves to biodiversity. With this, we increase the (positive) impact on biodiversity.

Reducing our ecological footprint

The university wants to increase the biodiversity at local, national and global levels. This is why we look critically and openly at our own (global) ecological footprint. This footprint is formed by what we buy, construct and throw away as a university. This influences biodiversity far away and nearby. It depends on where materials are produced and how waste is processed.

We put the emphasis in reducing our footprint on the five components of the Dutch ecological footprint. These are:

  • use of meat, dairy and other food
  • wood and paper
  • construction
  • transport and infrastructure
  • clothing and textile

In addition, it is relevant to look at the impact of carbon offsets.

More information