The two farmers from the example of the municipality of Westerveld have contacted the province and the municipality to sell their rights. One of the two approached Klaas Smidt, then alderman of the municipality of Westerveld, in mid-2020. But because the building exemption, a regulation that allowed construction despite nitrogen emissions, was still in force at the time, Smidt did not listen to it.
According to him, at that time there was no need at the municipality to buy nitrogen space. “I thought that more space would become available in the long term because farmers would stop and my expectation was that they would come to an agreement among themselves. That a whole trade would arise around that, I had no idea at the time. We were overtaken by reality.”
Prolander, the organization that works on landscape projects on behalf of the province, has a list of 110 farmers who may be interested in selling (part of) their business. We have been in contact with them about the sale of nitrogen space based on the first buy-out scheme from 2021. That contact varies from a simple call to extensive kitchen table discussions. One of the example farmers has disappeared from that list because he was not interested in the buy-out scheme. For the other farmer, it is currently being investigated whether the nature permit allows for leasing to Vermilion.
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