Overview
- Staatsbosbeheer announced on Tuesday that it will keep all seven visitor centres open for several months while it holds per-location talks with partners and other stakeholders.
- The centres together draw about 1.3 million visits a year but have run deficits for years, with rising staff and building costs cited as the main financial pressures.
- About 23 paid employees and roughly 350 volunteers work across the seven sites, and Staatsbosbeheer says many visitor services such as excursions and education can continue without a physical centre.
- The agency plans to keep cost-covering education programmes and events like the annual Boomfeestdag and to expand visitor information through rangers, excursions, signs, digital channels and local partnerships.
- The review restores talks that began after Staatsbosbeheer’s July announcement to close the centres by 1 January 2027 and reflects a broader shift back to funding core nature-management tasks that the organisation says are legally required.