It is out of the question for the municipal council of Aa and Hunze that farmers are obliged to stop based on nitrogen models. A motion to that effect was passed at tonight’s council meeting.
The motion was tabled on the initiative of the VVD, together with the Municipal Interests and the CDA. Aa en Hunze has a ‘large rural area with modern agricultural companies and beautiful nature reserves’, says the motion. The nature reserves deserve protection, but not because of the measures that the cabinet now has in mind.
Among other things, the Council finds it objectionable that the measures are based on calculation models, instead of real measurements of nitrogen values. This nitrogen deposition must first be measured. This involves both measuring the nitrogen values in the areas and determining how much nitrogen from the farms actually ends up in the nature reserves.
Through the motion, the council states that much more nitrogen reduction can be achieved through innovation than by relocating or stopping companies. The province must therefore insist on this in The Hague when drawing up a nitrogen plan.
Furthermore, it is not only necessary to look at emissions from the agricultural sector. Nature managers, industry and aviation must also be involved in tackling nitrogen problems.
The council also refers to the land that farmers have already ceded to the Drentsche Aa National Park over the past twenty years. This concerns hundreds of hectares, according to the motion. If the farmers had to leave the area now, the objective of a ‘living national park’ would no longer be attainable. This must be taken into account in the nitrogen plans, the council decided by adopting the motion.
In the motion, the mayor and aldermen are instructed to pass this message on to the province within two weeks. In the coming year, the province must develop a plan to set up a reduction of nitrogen in nature in Drenthe.