Danish farming and nature organisations join forces on climate change

The largest non-governmental agriculture and nature organisations in Denmark have pooled their resources to create a plan that aims to reduce Danish greenhouse gas emissions by 10%. The plan titled Common solutions – for nature and agriculture, is now being presented to the Danish government.

The Danish Society for Nature Conservation and the Danish Agriculture and Food Council's report focuses on encouraging farmers to take poor agricultural land out of production and proposes a modernised ammonia action plan.

The plan also wants to set aside 970 square kilometres for nature reserves – an area over 20 times the size of the Aran Islands.

Modernisation

Current laws on ammonia emissions in Denmark create difficulties for livestock producers that want to modernise their housing units and develop their farms, the report states.

“The rules of today can lead to livestock farmers near ammonia sensitive nature areas being locked in a situation, where they cannot get approval to modernise housing units, and are forced to continue their production on existing housing units over a long period of time,” the report reads. “This means that the nearby nature, in the meantime, is exposed by an unchanged high ammonia impact.”

The report recommends four actions to address the ammonia issue:

1.Differentiated protection of new nature

Danish ammonia laws prevent farmers from establishing nature reserves on their land in case it reaches a stage where their neighbours are not allowed to expand livestock production due to its impact on wildlife. The report recommends that if new nature reserves are established on a private or voluntary basis, it should not trigger enforcement of ammonia rules for livestock producers in that area.

2. Differentiated requirements near category two nature areas

The development of new and more environmentally-friendly livestock housing units is prevented by the uniform protection of ‘category two’ areas. These can be moors situated outside international nature reserves, for example. The report recommends that there needs to be an investigation into how this can be changed.

3. Compensation for closing farms

The report recommends that a purchasing scheme be established for livestock farms that are ‘inappropriately placed’.

“Many livestock farms are situated near ammonia sensitive nature which is a great strain on nature and further is limiting the possibility to develop and modernise production,” the report states.

A scheme to phase out livestock production in these areas through compensation is recommended. This would reduce ammonia emissions in these areas quicker than under current rules.

4. Multifunctional land distribution

Denmark is a densely populated country and space is a valuable resource. The report requests additional government funds for a ‘multifunctional land distribution’ fund which was launched to compensate for losses caused by the drought last summer.

"The government should purchase land taken out of production to create large areas of nature reserve. This effort needs to be prioritised in river valleys, low lying agricultural land, carbon rich soils and areas where authorities have decided to increase protection of drinking water.

The report states that this process must involve plot owners and local communities, in order for local solutions to be found," the report states.

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