Viable and vibrant countryside

The Dutch minister of Housing. Spatial Planning and the Environment and his
colleague, responsible for Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries, requested the Council for
advice on the long term policy for the rural areas in the Netherlands. This policy is laid
down by the government in national policy documents on spatial planning and on the
management of nature and landscape1. The Council published its advice in September
1999 under the title ‘Viable and vibrant countryside – strategies for the rural areas’. The
Council had published at an earlier stage an advice entitled ’City Land-Plus’, in which a
number of spatial strategies on perspectives for urbanisation in the Netherlands were
recommended. This advice ‘Viable and Vibrant Countryside’ is complementary to this.