On June 6, 2014, the Anders Wall Prize for outstanding contributions to the European countryside was awarded to Christophe Lenaerts of the Heihuyzen Domain in Belgium. The prize, a check valued at €15,000, was presented to Mr. K. Lenaerts at the General Assembly of the Friends of the Countryside at Castello di Udine in Italy.
This award has been presented for more than 10 years by the European Landowners’ Organization and the Swedish Anders WALL Foundation. This in cooperation with the non-profit organization Friends of the Countryside (FCS), the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture in Stockholm and, more recently, DG Millieu of the European Commission. The award rewards efforts for Europe’s countryside through landscape protection, biodiversity enhancement, cultural heritage conservation and contributions to the rural economy.
This year’s winner, Christophe Lenaerts, inherited his 400-hectare Belgian estate from his father in 2007. With his background as an ICT entrepreneur, he transformed the badly damaged forest into an actively maintained, profitable and sustainable domain in less than 5 years. The forestry now on display at Heihuyzen is the result of intensive contacts with local stakeholders, administration and legislators in Flanders. Today, the Domain supports a whole range of activities including training, hunting and sports, scouting and many others. Christophe’s vision for the future is reflected in his determination to share his experiences, knowledge and economic model with the next generation of stakeholders and land managers. His ambition is to make Domain Heihuyzen a role model in Belgium and beyond. To shape this challenge, he recently took office as Secretary General of vzw Landelijk Vlaanderen and became Vice-President of the Royal Belgian Forestry Society. The winner was “delighted” and “full of pride” to receive this award, along with encouragement from Pia Bucella, Director of Natural Capital at DG Environment of the European Commission.
