Professor: Statements about environmental damage highlight the cost of destroying nature

It is very expensive and difficult to replace protected nature that has been destroyed.

One of the reasons why the Association of Municipalities, KL, wants more options to financially compensate people who destroy marshes, wetlands, or coastal landscapes (https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/kl-gerningsmaend-skal-i-hoejere-grad-betale-genopretning-hvis-de-har-oedelagt).

In some cases, the perpetrators can avoid paying, and KL wants this changed in a new law on nature and biodiversity, which is on its way from the Ministry of Green Growth and the Environment Ministry.

The responsible minister for Green Growth, Jeppe Bruus (S), would like to see if there are enough tools in the municipalities' toolbox.

"There is something that suggests that there isn't, when we ask for it from the municipalities. And so we need to see how we can strengthen it," says Jeppe Bruus.

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It takes up to 150 years to create valuable nature

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KL would like to have the opportunity to create compensatory nature on the perpetrator's dime.

It is new nature somewhere, if it is not immediately possible to get the old nature back.

But it is both difficult and expensive to create nature that has the same value as what has been destroyed.

This shows research, says professor of biodiversity Carsten Rahbek from the University of Copenhagen.

> "It usually requires eight to ten times as much natural area to replace the nature that has been destroyed. So it is quite an expensive affair."

> Carsten Rahbek, professor of biodiversity, University of Copenhagen

It requires eight to ten times as much natural area to replace the nature that has been destroyed. So it is quite an expensive affair, he says.

This is because rich and varied nature with high biodiversity takes a long time to grow. For example, high moors or forests take between 50 and 100 years to reach the quality they have now.

"It takes a long time for nature to settle in and have the same quality," says Carsten Rahbek

He points out that Denmark is the country in Europe with the least nature, and the nature we have is one of the poorest.

"We have somewhat taken nature in Denmark for granted as something cheap, that it doesn't matter if we destroy it. Because it is also somewhere else."

But it is changing, among other things, with the green growth. At the same time, more cases about nature destruction are putting the value of nature in the spotlight, says Carsten Rahbek.

"Right now, it is putting the spotlight on nature, and what it costs to destroy nature, and whether we should take care of this nature," says Carsten Rahbek.

Minister for Green Growth, Jeppe Bruus (S), later in the year proposes a law on nature and biodiversity in cooperation with Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke (S).

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Protection of nature

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About ten percent of Denmark's area is protected through paragraph 3 of the Nature Protection Act.

For example, lakes, marshes, rivers, dunes, and heaths.

If the owner wants to make changes to a protected natural area, the municipality must grant dispensation.

Since the Nature Protection Act came into force in 1917, it has been possible to protect natural areas through fencing. This makes fencing the oldest form of nature protection in Danish legislation.

Natura 2000 is a network of protected natural areas across the EU. They should conserve and protect nature types and wild animal and plant species, which are rare, threatened, or characteristic of EU countries.

Source:

The Agency for Green Area Development and Water Environment, Ministry of Green Growth.

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