212 - FIELDS OF TULIPS NEAR LISSE, NEAR AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS (52°06' N, 4°42’ E).
In April and May of every year, the Dutch countryside briefly dons a multi-coloured garb. Since the first flowering in 1594 of bulbs brought back from the Ottoman Empire by the Austrian ambassador, four centuries of selection have led to the development of more than 800 varieties of tulip. On more than 20,000 hectares, half devoted to tulips and one-quarter to lilies, the Netherlands produce 65 percent of the world production of flowering bulbs (some 10 billion bulbs). But this success has been obtained at a high environmental price: in the 1990s, Dutch pesticide usage was the highest in Europe. Both the public and private sectors have therefore signed agreements regulating the use of chemical products, waste, and energy, and farmers have begun to make use of natural predators to protect their crops. Similar environmentally conscious initiatives are happening worldwide. In several Canadian cities, as well as the town of Rennes in France, local councils have prohibited the use of chemical pesticides in public parks.