Hundreds of farmers close to nature reserves were allowed to expand their livestock during the nitrogen crisis. This is shown by research by NRC. According to experts, nature has suffered additional damage as a result.
Farmers close to nature reserves are only allowed to expand if nitrogen emissions remain the same or decrease compared to the old permit. They must demonstrate this using a calculation model from the RIVM. With technical equipment in the stables, farmers can reduce emissions.
But this technical equipment reduces nitrogen emissions less than previously thought. For example, the widely used air scrubber, which purifies the air before it is blown out, does not reduce ammonia emissions by an average of 85 percent, but by 59 percent, according to research by Wageningen University & Research in 2018. The manure floor, which separates faeces in the stable from urine, which releases less nitrogen, also has a lower yield than expected, according to research by the Central Bureau of Statistics from 2019.
Also read the research of NRC: Can this pig farmer keep thousands of extra pigs?
There is also criticism of the RIVM calculation model itself: an advisory committee commissioned by the previous cabinet to investigate precipitation and nitrogen emissions stated in June last year that the model is unsuitable for testing individual farms and leads to ‘false certainty’. RIVM acknowledges the “uncertainty” about the calculations, but says that no new calculation model is being worked on. “However, the modeling (…) is being further developed.”
Judges critical
Last month, the court in Utrecht annulled eight permits for the construction of new stables. The province wrongly agreed to expansions, according to the judge: it needs to be better investigated whether nitrogen emissions really do not increase. In March, the Northern Netherlands court whistled back the province of Friesland, because permission had been wrongly granted to a Frisian dairy farmer. Both provinces will appeal because they believe that the RIVM model sufficiently demonstrates that nitrogen emissions and precipitation are not increasing.
Despite the court rulings, the provinces decided after joint consultation to continue as before. “We will continue to issue permits,” the province of Friesland e-mailed: “We are implementing the law as it is now.”
In Friesland, Limburg and Gelderland, permission to expand has been granted about 350 times in the past 2.5 years. It is not known exactly how the 100 extension applications in Gelderland were handled, 105 other cases are ‘still under consideration’. In Zeeland, Drenthe and Noord-Holland, a total of about ten expansions were involved. Flevoland and Overijssel did not provide any information, even after repeated insistence.
“More animals simply means more nitrogen is produced”
It is not known which companies have actually expanded and how much additional nitrogen emissions this has resulted in. But that it led to more emissions is certain, according to various experts. Franciska de Vries, professor of Earth Surface Science at the University of Amsterdam: “It is difficult to determine the emissions of one farm. But more animals simply means more nitrogen is produced. You can catch that, but that doesn’t always go well.”
According to Kees Bastmeijer, professor of nature conservation law at Tilburg University, expansion plans in the countryside are too often given priority over the interests of nature. Granting new permits and respecting permits already issued is allowed according to European rules do not lead to the deterioration of nature, says Bastmeijer. If the emissions are much higher due to uncertainties in the calculations, that is the case, he says. “Then nature is the victim.”
The Ministry of Agriculture (LNV) acknowledges “there are cases” where nitrogen emissions are increasing. The extent is unknown. According to LNV, the RIVM calculation model will be adjusted as soon as “there is a reason to do so by new scientific insights”. According to the ministry, several studies have recently been launched to see whether current knowledge is still sufficient.
Thousands of extra pigs p. 6-7
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