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The trade in nitrogen rights is thriving, it seems. Rijkswaterstaat needs them to build highways and municipalities to expand business parks. And maybe now also the construction company that is renovating the House of Representatives, like this came out today. There is now a proliferation of commercial companies offering nitrogen rights to farmers who want to stop for the big bucks.
ChristenUnie, CDA and VVD want to end the practices whereby the highest bidder runs away with the rights to the nitrogen. They think the government should step in and take over central leadership.
Martin Ruitenbeek from Harskamp on the Veluwe has had back problems for years. The veal farmer was therefore delighted to have come into contact with Rijkswaterstaat through his brother, who trades nitrogen rights.
‘Two mornings at the kitchen table and it’s done’
Rijkswaterstaat, which has taken over farmer Ruitenbeek, is not the only party seeking nitrogen rights. Following a 2019 State Council ruling, no further nitrogen can be deposited in nature reserves. So with each building plan, nitrogen rights have to be purchased as compensation.
In Apeldoorn, companies want to expand into a business park. Economy councilor Jeroen Joon: “We are working on a strategy on nitrogen. We calculate how much is needed where. Even for the 9,000 houses we have to build up to 2030”.
The city, surrounded by nature reserves, has now set up a veritable nitrogen team. He recently bought a farm for 2.1 million euros. A calculation model shows that there is enough nitrogen space for a business park that wants to expand. “Thanks to the purchase of the purchased farm, it is now possible to enable the expansion of the business park,” says Astrid Sluis, project manager on nitrogen.
Consultancy firm Flynth Rombou brings together supply and demand for nitrogen rights. A map of the Netherlands shows exactly where supply and demand meet. “We bring the parties together to use nitrogen as efficiently as possible,” says agricultural companies consultant Stefan van Summeren.
“Cowboy practices,” as Christian Union Representative Pieter Grinwis calls them. “By the right of the strongest.” He finds it incomprehensible, especially in times of scarcity and in times of much-needed restoration of nature. “There are entrepreneurs who mistakenly do not have a permit. We must first do them justice and provide them with a permit. It is precisely at this moment that the government must take control.
“It can’t be that if we want to help nature and farmers move forward, the government – say Rijkswaterstaat or Schiphol – will look for nitrogen so they can build their own projects,” says Grinwis.
Disorder
The Member of Parliament argued that the released nitrogen rights should be deposited in a national nitrogen bank. For the government to restore nature and legalize the so-called Pas-registri: farmers who suddenly found themselves without permission after the sentence of the Council of State. Under the old law, they complied with a notification, but now they suddenly need a permit. The government has not yet managed to regulate this.
The idea of a national nitrogen bank is supported by the councilor Joon from Apeldoorn. “It shouldn’t be a mess. How they organize it, as far as I’m concerned in The Hague, I don’t care. As long as we can move on quickly.”
Farmer Ruitenbeek’s nitrogen rights in the Veluwe are now being used in a different location than he was originally told. “It was intended for the Hoevelaken interchange. But we later learned that it will be used for the widening of the A27, quite a distance from here,” says Ruitenbeek.
The provinces of Gelderland and Utrecht are very angry on the shares of Rijkswaterstaat. They find it unacceptable that the national government has bought farms behind their backs and is now using the nitrogen rights from the Veluwe for a motorway in Utrecht.
