This article describes the history of the Netherlands Society of Herpetology and Herpetoculture, Lacerta, and in particular its role in the conservation and protection of the Netherlands native reptiles and amphibians. Lacerta was founded in 1941. Since most of its members were terrarium holders, its spearheads were and still are, providing information on breeding, diseases and food items. Conservation also became a key issue, and in 1944 the Herpetogeographical Service (hgd) was founded in order to collect distribution data on national species. Southern Limburg was quickly recognised as a herpetological hot spot. Lacerta took early action which led to the first (and smallest!) “nature monument” for one single species: the midwife toad in 1956. In the seventies Lacerta members from Limburg started annual publishing of their herpetological observations. In the late seventies and early eighties the first herpetological study groups appeared, cooperating with Lacerta groups. Although both groups had the same goals the different backgrounds made it difficult to work together. One species that did profit from the collaboration is the wall lizard in Maastricht. Members of Lacerta helped to breed them in captivity for reintroduction after wall restorations. In the eighties two important books appeared Amfibieën en reptielen van Nederland, België en Luxemburg (Sparreboom, 1981) and Atlas van de Nederlandse Amfibieën en Reptielen en hun Bedreiging (Bergmans & Zuiderwijk, 1986). In the nineties ravon (representing the herpetological study groups), warn (professional herpetologists from universities and institutes) and Lacerta explored new ways o cooperate. This led to the magazine mira (1995-1996) and to the transfer of the archives of the hgd to ravon. Nowadays members of Lacerta are also active within ravon or vice versa. Lacerta remains involved in the conservation of native species, but the published articles on field observations and field studies mainly deal with herpetofauna in foreign countries.

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Jur ter Borg, & Sergé Bogaerts. (2009). De geschiedenis van "Lacerta",de Nederlandse Vereniging voor Herpetologie en Terrariumkunde en haar rol bij de bescherming van inheemse herpetofauna. RAVON, 11(1/2), 13–19.