BBB and Ja21 come up with an alternative nitrogen plan, how feasible is it? † Nitrogen protest farmers

They are well ahead in the polls, and for the first time the BoerBurgerBeweging of Caroline van der Plas and Ja21 of Joost Eerdmans come together with a plan. Today they are making a ‘joint appeal’ to the cabinet, because according to them ‘the whole of the Netherlands is completely locked down due to the exceptionally strict nitrogen standards’. They want the cabinet to come up with a repair law with much less strict requirements.

They also want to get rid of the 25 billion euros that this cabinet has earmarked for the nitrogen plans. ‘Every household has to give up about 4,000 euros in tax money to scrape together the nitrogen budget of 25 billion euros.’ At a time of rising prices, this is ‘impossible to sell’, according to the duo.

The two also argue in favor of halving the number of Natura 2000 areas. ‘The Netherlands should focus on quality and not on quantity’, it sounds like.

As Minister of Agriculture, Carola Schouten has already tried to delete Natura 2000 areas, but came home from a cold fair. The problem is that, according to European agreements, the Netherlands is obliged to protect nature in the 162 Natura 2000 areas proposed by the Netherlands itself. In 2001, a European agreement was reached that the protection of nature is a European matter. As a result, the Netherlands cannot simply decide to dispose of half of it. You can only register if European legislation is amended.

BBB foreman Van der Plas and Ja21 foreman Eerdmans want to turn nitrogen reduction into a revenue model by letting farmers sell or lease nitrogen space that they save. By rewarding the reduction of nitrogen, the business community is ‘challenged to reduce as much as possible’, according to the two.

According to nitrogen professor Jan Willem Erisman of Leiden University, such a reward system is ‘no problem, provided you show that the nitrogen deposition is going down’. “If you don’t take nitrogen reduction seriously, everything will go wrong in court,” he warns. “That does not comply with the Council of State ruling, nor with that of the European Court.”

The parties also want the Netherlands to take an example from Germany, where they believe that more is possible. Erisman disputes that. The professor expects that Germany will follow the Dutch example in view of the ruling of the European Court, to which they are also bound. “The crux of the matter is that nature is not central to this ten-point plan. Do it like Germany, that’s not possible at all, because, for example, the Habitats Directive for protected nature in the Netherlands obliges us to conserve wild flora and fauna.”

According to the two, ‘the cabinet does not have a good overview of the state of Dutch nature’. ‘Instead of basing policy on soil analyzes and observations, the ministry relies on calculation models and assumptions.’ According to Erisman, this policy is indeed based on ecological samples and is also based on models. “But I don’t think they really need to examine the bottom everywhere to know if nature is deteriorating.”

The nitrogen professor is very pleased with the plan of BBB and Ja21 to make agricultural entrepreneurs themselves responsible for achieving their goals based on measurements on the farm. “I completely agree that this is necessary, you want to know the total emissions of a farmer. Unfortunately, we are not technically that far yet.”