Over 400,000ha of Danish land is to be taken out of food production and will be moved into nature conservation according to a leading Danish scientific adviser Flemming Gertz.

In addition, those farming peat soils need to pay a tax if they want to continue farming peat soils or be compensated if they don’t stay farming the bogs.

Gertz was speaking at the EPA water quality conference last week in Galway and also detailed how Denmark is transitioning from a top-down regulatory approach to a balanced bottom-up/top-down governance approach when dealing with managing nutrients around the coastal waters in Denmark.

“The implication [of top-down regulation only] is a lack of trust and no ownership among farmers to solve, and even confrontation when it becomes too hard, so we are starting at zero now as we need farmers on board,” he explained.

Coastal water quality in Denmark has improved over the last 30 years and nitrate levels have reduced by 50%; however, quality is still poor.

Gertz said: “Oxygen depletion in coastal waters is becoming a bigger problem. Now the target is different for different areas, but there are still really big challenges.”

Changes

The most recent governance change implemented by the Danish parliament last November will see the 23 individual local catchment groupings report directly to the minister.

Steering and technical groups solving local issues will then report into these catchment teams.

This hierarchical structure aims to empower the local groups rather than a one size fits all instruction from the top.