Interim law regulates the number of animals per region

The draft proposal 'Interim Act on Livestock Dense Areas' was released for internet consultation yesterday, 11 April 2017. The bill contains instruments to take measures for areas that suffer from negative consequences of livestock farming. 

The program bill introduces powers for provinces to set limits to the size of livestock farming in the area concerned, where appropriate. It concerns an interim law, because the implementation of the Environment Act is anticipated.

Added value of the Interim Act
According to the explanatory memorandum to the draft bill, the added value of the Interim Act is threefold:

1. An independent authority to be able to steer for an area on the basis of the size of livestock farming (directly, instead of indirectly via environmental law).
    
2. Creating an area-oriented approach (distribution of the usable space in an area).
    
3. Direct management by a single administrative layer, the province.

Instruments of the province
The draft bill is based on a programmatic approach. If they deem it desirable, the provincial councils will establish a cohesive program "living environment and livestock farms". That program is established for the development of livestock farms in an area in which, in their opinion, the living environment is overloaded due to the size of livestock farming.

This not only concerns a safe and healthy physical living environment, but also good environmental quality. The draft bill therefore has a broader scope than the animal numbers and public health bill had.

Development measures
The program determines which measures will be taken for the development of livestock farms in the area concerned, taking into account the vision of the province in relation to the quality of the living environment in that area. This may involve a limitation of the size of livestock farming (the number of farm animals, the number of animals per livestock location and/or the number of livestock locations).

Provincial Councils can also adopt an ordinance, they can take a preparatory decision for so-called PLV areas and the Provincial Executive can, among other things, grant exemptions from general rules laid down by or pursuant to the ordinance.

Paul Bodden

Paul Bodden is a lawyer at Hekkelman. He focuses on providing legal aid. He also wrote a preliminary recommendation for the Association for Agrarian Law and is a member of the editorial board of the Tijdschrift voor Agrarisch Recht.

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