Membership of Dutch private nature conservation organisations, 1989-2021

Memberships in 2021

In 2021 the combined membership of the four biggest nature conservation organisations rose to 1,746,416. Natuurmonumenten is the biggest organisation. In 2021 the membership of this organisation rose by 15% over the 2020 figure. Natuurmonumenten is supported by about 9.8% of Dutch households.

WWF lost almost a quarter of its members compared to 2019-2020 and now has 486,000 donors. The memberships of Birdlife Netherlands (7%) and the provincial landscape foundations (1%) also grew.

Private nature conservation organisations play a major part in managing nature reserves and protected areas in the Netherlands and in generating public support for nature and landscape conservation. Natuurmonumenten and the 11 provincial landscape foundations focus on the acquisition and management of nature conservation areas in the Netherlands, while WWF focuses on global nature conservation.

Membership trends

Membership of the larger nature conservation organisations grew considerably during the 1990s, but this trend changed after 2002-2003. From then on WWF and Natuurmonumenten steadily lost members. From 2011 the membership of Natuurmonumenten has been stable and since 2018 has increased again. Since 2007 WWF suffered from a fall in members, but in 2020 there was a sudden uplift in numbers, followed by a decrease in 2021. Memberships of the provincial landscape foundations and Birdlife Netherlands have been fairly stable since 2004.

Limited data available for 2021

The only membership data available for 2021 are for the four biggest nature conservation organisations.