Preserving Darkness in a Light-Polluted Landscape
Two yellowing street lamps cast a pool of light on the dark road winding into the woods outside Mazée village. This scene is typical for narrow countryside roads in Wallonia in the south of Belgium.
“Having lights here is logical,”says André Detournay, 77, who has lived in the village for four decades.
“I walk here with my dog and it makes me feel safe and gives me some protection from theft.”
Belgium glows like a Christmas decoration at night, as witnessed from space. It is one of the most light-polluted countries in Europe, with the Milky Way invisible except in the most remote areas.
But in the coming months, these lamps outside Mazée in the municipality of Viroinval will be turned off permanently as part of a radical project to remove unnecessary streetlights in this area of Wallonia.
Removing Unnecessary Lighting to Protect Nature
Across Europe, unnecessary lighting is being extinguished, with a key motivation to protect nature. Over the past decade, research has shown that illuminating night skies negatively affects a wide range of species, including insects, birds, and amphibians, disrupting their feeding, reproduction, and navigation.
Detournay expresses reservations about the project.
“I am for frogs. I dug two ponds for them,”he says.
“But near a village, we need lights. You would have to prove it significantly increased biodiversity here to persuade me otherwise.”
Project Origins and Implementation
The idea for the project was born in 2021. A Wallonia public administrator estimated that many streetlights in the Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse national park – a protected landscape of forests, rivers, and wetlands near the French border – were pointless. These were defined as being more than 50 metres from the nearest building (often on roads between villages where few people walk) and less than 50 metres from a natural area, which are judged to be of the highest value to nature.
The national park has allocated €308,000 to remove these streetlights, treating it as beneficial for nature in the same way as restoring a pond or woodland. Between now and August, dozens of streetlights are being removed by the municipality’s electricity grid operators.
Balancing Safety and Conservation
“We cannot say to an old lady we want to prioritise bats over you,”says Nicolas Goethals, who is leading the project, emphasizing that ensuring people’s safety is critical.
However, some local officials remain cautious. Jacques Monty from the Viroinval municipality is up an eight-metre pole in a cherry picker, detangling electrics and metal to remove a light near the village of Nismes, where nearby limestone caves are a bat hotspot. Monty has worked for the municipality for 35 years, and during that time his job has always been about maintaining lighting.
“It could be good, but we need to make sure it doesn’t compromise the safety of people – that is my priority,”he says.
Public Perception and Research on Street Lighting
The public debate on streetlights is straightforward: they make people feel safer, which is the main objection for people living in Wallonia. However, research presents a more complex picture.
Although lighting increases people’s feeling of safety and willingness to walk in public spaces at night, it does not always mean they are actually safer. Studies into the effects of reduced street lighting in England and Wales found no significant changes in crime or road collisions. Other reviews have found mixed evidence regarding lighting’s impact on crime and road safety.
“Seventy-five [streetlights] might not seem like much but you have to start somewhere,”says Goethals, who has organized local talks and night walks and sent out letters to inform residents about the merits of the project.
“It’s not right that lights are on all night long for everybody and not used. The normal should be darkness. It’s night-time!”He adds that people should illuminate themselves with vests and torches if they want to walk on rural roads.
Environmental and Health Impacts of Light Pollution
Findings on the negative effects of light pollution on nature, as well as human and plant health, are unequivocal. Experts argue that light pollution should be treated as a pressure on nature akin to habitat loss or chemical pollution. More than half of insect species are in decline. In France, an estimated billions of insects are killed each year by public lighting, either dying from exhaustion or being eaten by predators.
This is a global problem. The invention of the electric lightbulb 150 years ago was one of the most transformative human inventions, but now the majority of the world’s population lives under light-polluted skies.
Global Efforts to Reduce Light Pollution
Thousands of municipalities switch off public lighting in the middle of the night to save energy and reduce light pollution. At the EU level, there is guidance on creating dark corridors for wildlife and reducing light pollution. In the UK, campaign groups are raising awareness about the issue, and a number of cities in the US are exploring similar initiatives. In April, Goethals is collaborating with colleagues in France to extend darkness infrastructure into other parts of Europe.
“Here is just the start – real darkness infrastructure will come off the back of this,”he says.
Supporting Wildlife Through Infrastructure Adaptation
Elsewhere in the park, another form of infrastructure indicates what disused poles could be used for.
Old electricity pylons – which were once a threat to wildlife – are being retrofitted to support the comeback of white storks. Back in 2011, it was relatively rare to spot a white stork, but in 2025 there were nearly 800 recorded sightings in the national park, with numbers increasing year on year.
These large white birds would naturally nest at the top of tall trees, but in a human-dominated landscape, an old pylon is a good alternative. Each metal stork nest costs €500 and the goal is to install 30 by this summer. Branches and fake droppings are added to each nest to make it look like it has been previously occupied. Unlike removing streetlights, this work is unanimously appreciated.
“People love these birds. I’ve never spoken to someone who doesn’t like seeing them in their nests,”says Goethals.
A Broader Shift Towards Nighttime Darkness
Although this experiment rolling out on Belgium’s rural roads may be small, it is part of a bigger shift. For more than a century, humans have sought to light every corner of the night, but there is a growing movement to allow darkness to return.
