2023-06-28 15:00:00
First, substantially reduce the nitrogen surplus in protected nature areas. And with the space that this creates, finally legalize the group of ‘Pass reporters’: livestock farmers who are without a permit due to government errors. In short, that was the ambition that Minister of Nature Christianne van der Wal (VVD) initially had with her much-discussed ‘wildly attractive’ peak tax scheme, under which farmers can stop for a compensation of 120 percent of the market price.
But in North Brabant that will in any case not fully succeed, agrees deputy Erik Ronnes (CDA). “The weight in the approach lies with the larger nature reserves,” he explains. Livestock farmers in Brabant are thus relatively few eligible for the peak tax scheme.
Livestock farmers who have a lot of protected nature within a radius of 25 kilometers around their farm are relatively quick to deal with peak loads. Colleagues with fewer hectares of nature in their vicinity escape the dance. As a result, approximately 60 percent of the peak loaders are located in Gelderland, due to the proximity of the Veluwe. Brabant, which is certainly so rich in livestock, has many smaller nature reserves. As a result, the province is home to ‘only’ regarding 8 percent of the farmers who have been labeled as peak taxers.
Goal of approach changed
In fact, the aim of the peak tax approach has shifted, deputy Ronnes analyses. “The minister is now mainly looking at the greatest effect on nature. In 2030 or 2035, the nitrogen surplus must be resolved on 74 percent of all hectares in the Netherlands. Then it is effective to focus the approach mainly on the large nature reserves.” While the original plan was to create nitrogen space around all nature reserves. As a result, all Pas reporters would still receive a permit.
Pas reporters are in most cases livestock farmers who expanded their business between 2015 and 2019. Because they only provided a small amount of extra nitrogen in nature in proportion, they did not need a permit for this. But since the court swept the Dutch nitrogen policy off the table in 2019, it has yet to come. However, that has not been possible for four years, because there is no room for nitrogen.
There will therefore also be insufficient space around smaller nature areas, even if the peak tax scheme becomes a success in terms of participation. Nevertheless, Ronnes is positive regarding the fact that there is now at least a clear regulation. “At least we can get started now.”
Lots of support, lots of ambiguity
Noord-Brabant wants to take matters into its own hands. The province already has a support network that can help farmers with their choices for the future. That club is being expanded considerably, from 6 to 20 to 25 people. They can serve farmers, but also municipalities. Because especially smaller municipalities with a large number of agricultural companies a huge task awaits. After all, municipalities are responsible for zoning plans, and therefore also for the possibilities that exist, for example, with the land of a farmer who is stopping.
The task is by no means limited to the approximately 265 farmers who are designated as peak loaders in Brabant. For example, there is a much broader group of ten thousand companies that can be bought out at 100 percent of the market price. But that takes more time. Ronnes expects that the share of Brabant companies in that group is actually high.
Choices other than quitting
Moreover, stopping remains primarily a voluntary choice, both in national and in Brabant policy. Livestock farmers can also opt for extensification – either fewer animals per hectare of land, for relocation or for nitrogen reduction through new, innovative techniques.
But there is still uncertainty regarding all these possibilities. Agreements regarding extensification would be made in the agricultural agreement, for example regarding how farmers might earn extra money with nature and landscape management. However, those talks broke down last week. A relocation arrangement is still in the works, but it is not expected until the end of this year. And innovative techniques are under fire – also from a legal point of view – because they often work much less well in practice than the first measurements show.
Brabant still locked
With all those ifs and buts, the moment seems far away when nature in Brabant is healthy enough to – for example – be able to build once more. Plans in the province have largely been at a standstill since the end of February, when so-called ‘nature target analyses’ showed that nature areas in Brabant are actually deteriorating. Due to nitrogen, but also due to, for example, problems with water quality and water management.
For Brabant, that was reason to announce a kind of near-construction freeze that goes a little further than in other provinces. The provincial government then concluded that this decision was legally unavoidable. Remarkably, Ronnes now leaves enough room by calling the construction stop a ‘choice’, and therefore not inevitable. Other provinces with similar problems and equally alarming nature target analyzes – Limburg, for example – halted the granting of permits less rigorously.
Read also:
BBB is sidelined in Brabant: VVD looking for coalition on the left
The VVD in North Brabant will try to form a new coalition with GroenLinks, PvdA, SP, D66 and Local Brabant. BBB has sidelined itself by letting the previous formation attempt collapse at the last minute.
1688016662
#Brabant #locked #time #peak #taxers #bought
