Five Netherlands

The Netherlands has a significant land-use footprint, primarily driven by imports. Despite the country’s total surface area of 4.2 million hectares, which includes inland and open water, only 2.0 million hectares are dedicated to arable land, permanent crops, and pastures for agricultural and forestry activities. However, the Netherlands supplements its limited domestic land with a staggering 20.3 million hectares of imported land use. When taking exports into consideration, the net trade land-use expands to 18.8 million hectares. Overall, the Netherlands’ total land-use footprint reaches 20.8 million hectares, which is more than five times its own surface area! This extensive footprint illustrates the heavy reliance of the Netherlands on international land resources to sustain its economy and population, surpassing the capacity of its own land.

Data source: UNEP (2024). SCP-HAT database v3.0. UN Life Cycle Initiative, UN One Planet Network, UN International Resource Panel. Paris. https://scp-hat.org/methods