A municipality in the Netherlands has sold one hectare and 18 acres of land to a Belgian nature association after negotiating the deal for more than ten years.
The nature reserve Stramprooierbroek stretches across 200 hectares that saddle both Belgian and Dutch Limburg. The association Limburgs Landschap has just paid €30,000 to acquire a meadow owned by the Dutch municipality of Weert but geographically located in the Belgian municipality of Maaseik.
The piece of land will become part of the nature reserve to provide marshy terrain for the organisation's Galloway cattle, who fare better on dry land (damp land can harm their hooves and cause infection).
"This is a private-law sale between the municipality of Weert and Limburgs Landschap in Belgium," Weert spokesperson Dirk Küsters told Het Belang van Limburg. "This is a transfer of ownership, not a border correction. This was done in the past when the two Limburgs were separated."
When Belgium gained independence in 1831 the site technically belonged to the new country, but in practice it remained under Dutch jurisdiction.
"It is quite extraordinary that a Dutch municipality has land abroad," Henk Creemers from the region of Stamproy in Weert told L1 one year ago when the sale neared finalisation.
