The Danish Buffer Zone Legislation and Incorporatio of Local Knowledge
Institution: | Roskilde University |
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Department: | |
Year: | 2013 |
Keywords: | water planning; EU Water Framework Directive; Horsens; agriculture |
Record ID: | 1120714 |
Full text PDF: | http://rudar.ruc.dk/handle/1800/9898 |
This report concerns implementation of the buffer zones in the countryside of Denmark and to what extend it leaves room for incorporation of local knowledge. The surface water bodies in Europe are in need of remediation toward minimizing the emission of nutrients and pesticides. Through water quality goals set by the European Union Water Framework Directive (EU WFD) the Danish government has implemented River Basin Management Plans, wherein mandatory 10 m buffer zones along all open watercourses and lakes larger than 100m2 in the countryside has been chosen as one of the legal measures to ensure the decrease of these outlets. The conversion of farmland into buffer zones has been legislated uniformly by the government with a minimum amount of inclusion of local knowledge and this has spurred a lot of debate in regard to its legitimacy and its efficiency toward complying with the goals set in the EU WFD. To assist in shedding light on the possibilities and barriers of utilization of local knowledge in the buffer zone legislation Martin Jänicke’s theory about environmental capacity is used as theoretical background. A case study of the municipality of Horsens is analysed through Jänicke’s model of environmental explanation and empirical data consisting of background material regarding the buffer zone legislation and interviews with the municipality of Horsens, the local agricultural consultancy agency (LRØ), and two farmers from the area Horsens are used in order to answer our problem formulation. The findings of this report show that there are more barriers than possibilities to the inclusion of local knowledge in the BZL and that these barriers are primarily found in the political-institutional realm. Furthermore this study shows that actors in Horsens possess local knowledge which can be used in future water planning.