The Dutch Society for the Protection of Birds "Nederlandse Vereniging tot bescherming van Vogels" took the initiative to increase the number of storks again. The foundation of the stork centre "Het Liesveld" in 1969 was an important step into the right direction. It was the beginning of the bird's re-introduction in the Netherlands.
The Liesveld centre's activities include encouraging breeding. The young birds are set free after a period of time, in the hope they will settle elsewhere in the Netherlands.
The outdoor stork centre Het Doove Gat is also trying to re-introduce the storks, but on a smaller scale. The centre, stationed in Haastrecht, is one of twelve centres in the Netherlands and has opened on 9 October 1982. Fourteen storks were transferred from the Liesveld centre to ours. One of the breeding pairs was set free in the spring of 1983, settled in our centre and was responsible for an increase in population: in May the first "Doove Gat" stork crawled out of its shell and since then 200 more young storks have been released from our centre.