MUN UNEP

DESERTIFICATION

RESEARCH POINTS

 Soil Contamination Act.

 EU Soil Framework Directive (Danish Environmental Protection Ag
ency, 2006)
 EU Soil Thematic Strategy. 
More than half of the cultivated land is devoted to cereals, with barley and
wheat accounting for a large percentage of the total grain harvest. Sugar
beets are another leading crop. Oats, rye, turnips, and potatoes are grown
in western Jutland, where the soil is less fertile.
 To protect low-lying land against flooding and storm surge, dikes or other
permanent installations have been built along about 1800 km of coastline
(3). Five types of coastlines can be identified: rocky coast, soft cliff coast,
tidal flat / marsh coast, protected coast, and sandy dune coast. Some parts
of the coast are eroding, such as northern Jutland (2-4 m/year)) and the
central west (North Sea) coast (2-8 m/year) (1).
Denmark has been dealing seriously with wind erosion problems for the
past 125 years whereas water erosion did not come into focus until serious
eutrophication appeared in the coastal waters in 1986. This paper describes
the problems and processes of soil erosion in Denmark and how these are
inter-linked with the political system through subsidies, production
systems, etc. The dominant soil erosion processes in Denmark are wind,
sheet, rill, tillage, and bank erosion. Whereas wind erosion is predominant
on sandy soils with low soil fertility, sheet, rill, and tillage erosion are
mainly on till from the last glaciation and is largely caused by snowmelt
events and prolonged rain on saturated and/or partly frozen soil. Danish
laws and subsidies have played a key role in managing soil erosion. This
has for instance been manifested by the extensive planting of windbreaks
and the establishment of buffer zones along water courses. On the other
hand, the focus on reducing nitrate leaching has led to increased sheet and
rill erosion resulting from a larger number of fields with winter crops.
When it comes to reducing phosphorous transport to the aquatic
environment, soil erosion has as an important process but a thorough
understanding of the mechanisms are lacking. Finally, the case study of the
Water Environmental Protection Plan I show that both the media and
NGOs can play a key role in pushing environmental problems associated
with soil erosion onto the political agenda and with the NGOs having a
great say in the actual shaping of the laws.

A number of agri-environmental measures under the Danish

Rural Development Programme also contribute to soil conservation: -
Conversion to organic farming (support is granted for conversion to
organic farming for cultivated agricultural areas during a 5-year
commitment period) - Extensive production on agricultural land (support
is granted for pesticide free farming during a 5-
year commitment period. Support is paid for cultivated
agricultural areas only) - Establishment and management of set aside
border strips (area payments for five years for replacement and special
conservation of set-aside areas. The set-aside must be placed on
border strips next to lakes and watercourses and will reduce soil erosion to
the lake or watercourse) - Establishment of wetlands (support is offered for
establishment and sustainable management of wetlands on farmland) -
Establishment of landscape and biotopeimproving vegetation, including sh
elter plants.

The EU Soil Thematic Strategy

he Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection identifies the key soil threats in
the EU as erosion, floods and landslides, loss of soil organic matter,
salinisation, contamination, compaction, sealing, and loss of soil
biodiversity.
Environmental Liability Directive
it also sets the most appropriate measures to remediate land
damage (e.g., to ensure that relevant contaminants are managed in a way
that the contaminated land no longer poses any significant risk of
adversely affecting human health).
Industrial Emissions Directive
ensuring that the operation of an installation does not lead to a
deterioration of the quality of soil and groundwater.
Environmental Impact Assessment Directive
The environmental impact assessment will identify, describe and
assess in an appropriate manner the direct and indirect effects of a
project on the following factors: human beings, fauna and flora, soil,
water, air, climate and the landscape, material assets, etc.
Sewage Sludge Directive
 seeks to encourage the use of sewage sludge in agriculture and to
regulate its use in such a way as to prevent harmful effects on soil,
vegetation, animals and people. The use of sewage sludge must not
impair the quality of the soil and of agricultural products. 
Regulation on fertilisers
sets out the definition of ‘EU fertilising products’ and lays down
rules on making them available on the market. Among others, it also
defines thresholds for contaminants presence in fertilising products,
notably Cadmium, to minimize soil pollution.
Mercury Regulation
Land use, land use change and forestry Regulation
Common Agriculture Policy

In the 1989 Forestry Act, a target of doubling the forest area was set. This
target has been maintained in the National Forestry Programme from 2002,
specifying the increase in forest area to cover 20-25 % of the total Danish
area within a three-growth generation (i.e., 80-100 years).
he quality of Danish nature areas is regulated through several initiatives,
including the Act on Nature Conservation from 1992, that aims to protects
open-land areas (so-called § 3 areas) and the habitat directive which has
led to identification of Natura 2000 areas. Initiatives to maintain these
areas and additional 40 000-hectare nature areas in the open land are
described in the Government plan ’Green Growth ‘from 2009.

>>>>

Denmark first to take responsibility for loss and damage from climate
change (balkangreenenergynews.com)

During last year’s Cop26, the G77, a block of more than 130 developing
countries, made a push to create a finance facility to support victims of
climate-related disasters. The initiative was blocked by the EU and the US.

Under the Paris Agreement, all countries agreed to address the “loss and
damage associated with climate change impacts”. But rich countries have
fiercely resisted providing specific finance for this, as they do not want to
accept liability and risk being sued by climate vulnerable nations.

Denmark has become the first fully-fledged country to pledge funds to

developing countries specifically for “loss and damage”.

we committed 100 million DKK ($13m) to build resilience and help

climate victims recover during a ministerial meeting on the side-line of the
UN General Assembly in New York.

Denmark is a small country of merely 43 000 km2. The land is

intensively used: 62% is farmland, 11% (mainly production) forest
and 17% is covered by cities, roads and infrastructure. Thus, only
about 10 percent remain for nature protection. Yet, although nature
areas may generally be small and scattered, they offer great variety in
terms of different landscapes and nature types. From an international
point of view, the most important nature types are coastal cliff dunes
and shallow sea areas.
Denmark got its first Nature Protection Act in 1917 including the
possibility to designate conservation areas by suggestion of public
governments and the Danish Nature Conservation Society. Today, the
Nature Protection Act also includes a general protection of different nature
types (e.g., heath, meadows, lakes) and rules for public access. Many
specific areas have been preserved according to the Act.

Denmark has five National Parks, Thy, Mols Bjerge, Vadehavet,

Skjoldungernes Land and Kongernes Nordsjælland which were established
in 2008.  A certification scheme is set up for regional Nature Parks by the
Danish Outdoor Council. By 2021 there were in all 11 nature parks in
Denmark including pilot nature parks.

For the last almost 30 years, Denmark has been very active in restoring
nature areas such as rivers. The largest restoration projects being the River
Skjern Nature Restoration projects, where about 2 200 hectares of
meadows, reed beds and lakes where restored, together with 40 kilometres
of river. Afforestation is another important theme and Denmark aims to
double its forest area within 80-100 years.