News item | 01-04-2022 | 15:05
Accelerate recovery of nature and future-proof rural areas. That is the core of the outline letter for tackling the nitrogen problem, which Minister Christianne van der Wal (Nature and Nitrogen) sent to the House of Representatives today. In the letter, the minister outlines the route to an area-oriented approach, an intensification and acceleration of existing nitrogen measures and plans to make the current permit granting more sustainable.
The inevitability of the nitrogen approach is central to the letter: due to an excess of nitrogen, more and more animals and plants disappear, causing nature to deteriorate. This endangers clean drinking water, clean air and healthy soil, the basis for our lives, our food and therefore also the basis of our economy. A new balance between what nature can support and what we as a society can ask of nature is necessary. The cabinet is not starting from scratch – a structural nitrogen approach is already underway – but an acceleration and expansion of the approach is necessary to prevent irreparable damage to nature and to make other cabinet tasks (housing, energy transition, accessibility, sustainable agriculture) successful.
Minister Van der Wal:
“A clean, liveable country with room for entrepreneurs. That to me is the finish line of the nitrogen approach. There is work to be done, because nature has weakened and as a result there is now too little space available for new homes or for companies and farmers who want to start or expand a business. In order to tackle the nitrogen problem, we are going to accelerate and sharply reduce nitrogen emissions – voluntary where possible, mandatory where that is not possible. So that nature recovers and prospects are created for entrepreneurs.”
Area-oriented approach
The challenge is large: 50% less nitrogen emissions and three quarters of the nitrogen-sensitive Natura 2000 areas at a healthy level by 2030. The government wants to cleverly combine nitrogen measures in a so-called area-oriented approach with other measures to protect nature, the soil and water quality. improve and meet the climate challenge. This is done through a National Program for Rural Areas. The government has made 25 billion euros available for this on top of existing resources (6 billion euros). Because areas differ, the approach also differs per area. The national government and provinces set goals for each area that must inevitably be achieved. Together, these goals add up to the national goal.
By July 2023 at the latest, it will be clear in each area what the goal is and how it will be achieved, after which money will be made available. All sectors – industry, agriculture, traffic, maritime and aviation – make a contribution and it is clear that this task requires a great deal of effort from the agricultural sector. The aim is to do this on a voluntary basis as much as possible: stop schemes and also opportunities for farmers who want to stay to relocate, farm in a different way or innovate. If this does not yield sufficient results, more compelling measures will come into play.
Accelerate and intensify
In the letter, Minister Van der Wal announced a number of plans to accelerate and intensify the (existing) approach to nitrogen. The minister is making maximum efforts to stop entrepreneurs voluntarily and is investigating whether current and forthcoming purchase schemes can be made more attractive. Among other things, by betting on the ‘early bird’ principle: the sooner you register for a stopping scheme, the more favorable the (financial) conditions. The letter also states that the minister wants to focus on the accelerated purchase of peak loaders and land.
The results of a so-called ‘quick-scan nature target analysis’ will follow in May and will provide an initial picture of nature reserves where recovery is in danger of being lost. If the full nature target analyzes subsequently show that additional nitrogen reduction is required in areas quickly to prevent deterioration and enable recovery, these areas will be given priority. This means that measures will be taken more quickly and that more mandatory instruments will be available for those areas sooner, possibly already in the coming years.
Furthermore, Minister Van der Wal will shortly send a request to the provinces for an inventory of concrete projects and proposals that are already in place to achieve targets for nature, nitrogen, water and climate. When these plans are concrete enough, measures can be started as early as 2022 and 2023 and financing can be arranged.
Consent granting more robust
Due to various court decisions, both applicants and grantors (provinces, central government) of a nature permit have the necessary uncertainty about the sustainability of these permits. The cabinet recognizes that. The cause is that in the Netherlands we have gone too far and for too long over the limit of what nature can handle. Restoration of nature is first necessary to make the granting of permission more robust. In order to offer more certainty in the short term, Minister Van der Wal is working with the regional governments to tighten up the rules regarding the latent space in permits, the rules regarding internal and external balancing, grazing and fertilization and the rules regarding the use of the so-called Rav factors in barn innovations (Ammonia Livestock Farming Regulations). A concrete implementation of these tightening up will follow before the summer.
Resilient Agriculture
In the letter, Minister Van der Wal, also on behalf of Minister Henk Staghouwer of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV), emphasizes that sufficiently resilient agriculture is important and indispensable for a sustainable food supply and a liveable rural area. Also in view of the war in Ukraine and the rising prices for food worldwide. Before the summer, Minister Staghouwer will present plans to help agricultural entrepreneurs who want to continue farming to make a future-proof choice.