Current legislation on environmental and nature protection

Legal permits for establishing and running animal farm facilities

On December 10 and 11, 2013 there was a presentation of certifying companies which run animal factices held in Berlin. It was conducted by the legal offices of Andrea Versteyl, the Association for Independent Heath Advising (UGB), and the NORDUM Akademie. There were many participants from agencies and the market who came together to talk about different topics.

There are new legal guidelines for animal farming and biogas plants - and learning about these is essential for planners, providers, and agencies.

These current changes are causing a lot of uncertainty for people who work in these areas, be it planning new plants or making significant changes to existing farms and plants. The acceptance levels of these new changes are rather low, making it difficult to plan and implement professional organization and communications.

Even the agencies in charge of approving projects have been facing challenges and are in the public eye. It is important to have approval certificates which are in line with the law in order to avoid conflict and reduce lawsuits posed by environmental agencies.

This two-day event in Berlin in December 2013 covered five main topics:

I.  Planning law and securing location sites

II. Participation of residents, communications, media

III.  Animal welfare as a precondition

IV.  Emissions and immisisons

V. Biotope habitats and species conservation

Recognized experts explain the legal and technical basis information to those who will be initiating, planning, evaluating, and investigating such projects in light of the new application rules (laws regarding planning, nature and species conservation, and immissions protection).

Speakers at this event:

RA Prof. Dr. Andrea Versteyl

Prof. Versteyl is with the law firm Andrea Versteyl Rechtsanwälte and spoke on the topic of “Changes of privileges in commercial animal farming and admission of ‘other projects’ according to § 35 Abs. 2 BauGB”

Dr. Jürgen Millat

Dr. Millat is the Head of the Association for Independent Heath Advising (UGB) and spoke on “Analyzing potential with eh aim of creating ‘substantial room’ – possibilities and limitations”

RA Stephan RA Stephan Birko

Mr. Birko is a lawyer with the law firm Andrea Versteyl Rechtsanwälte and presented “Using land utilization plans as a means of guiding planning processes”

Uwe Schrader

Mr. Schrader is with the Ministry for Environment, Energy, and Climate Protection in Lower Saxony and talked about “Changing the conditions in the approval process of biogas plants as an element of securing location sites”

Lars Kolk

Mr. Kolk is the special service head of the city of Emden’s municipal planning and discussed “Early involvement of residents in conjunction with land utilization plans and building planning”

RA Dr. Sven Krüger

Mr. Krüger is a lawyer with the law firm Schwenn & Krüger Rechtsanwälte and presented information on “Deflecting attacks of the press and legal commentary”

Hartwin Möhrle & Rupert Ahrens

Mr. Möhrle and Mr. Ahrens head the company A&B One Kommunikationsagentur GmbH and spoke on “Communication and dialogue on site associated with proceedings”

Dr. Christian P. Zimmermann

Dr. Zimmermann is a lawyer with the law firm Andrea Versteyl Rechtsanwälte and spoke on “Animal Welfare Requirements in Pig Farming”

Dr. Jürgen Bardenhagen

Dr. Bardenhagen is with the Ministry for Environment, Energy, and Climate Protection in Lower Saxony and spoke on “Cleaning exhaust air according to the latest technology factors – Lower Saxony and North Rhein Westphalia’s decrees”

Dr. Michael Mußlick & Dr. Ing. Karl-Heinz Krause

Dr. Mußlick is with the Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Nature Protection in Thuringia and Dr. Ing. Krause is with the Federal Research Agency for Agriculture and is an evaluator for immissions protection and climate design in animal farming. They spoke on “The role of numerical analysis in planning technical ventilation and exhaust with the aim of reducing emissions in pig farming”

Heike Donhauser & Dr.-Ing. Wilfried Eckhof

Ms. Donhauser is head of immissions evaluation, prognosis, and measurement while Dr.-Ing. Eckhof is with the engineering offices Ingenieurbüro Dr.-Ing. Wilfried Eckhof. They spoke about “Chances of having installations approved when the odor immisison guidelines are not adhered to”

Dr. Isabelle Franzen-Reuter & Prof. Dr. med. Thomas Eikmann

Dr. Franzen-Reuter is with the Commission for Clean Air in VDI and DIN while Prof. Dr. med. Eikmann works at the Institute for Hygene and Environmental Medicine at the Justus Liebig University of Gießen. Their topic was “Evaluating bio aerosols – VDI 4250 Blatt 1“

Dr. Birgit Stoßberg

Dr. Stoßberg is with the Public Health Department of the Landkreis Emsland, Meppen and spoke on “Assessment of bio aerosols and germs in administrative practice”

Dr. Annette Hofele & Andreas Kutschke

Dr. Hofele and Mr. Kutschke are at the Sachverständige für Immissionsschutz GmbH and talked about “Increasing preventive demands placed on animal farms – problems companies have in adapting and challenges in approval procedures from the perspective of evaluators”

RA Dr. Peter Kersandt

Dr. Kersandt is a lawyer with the law firm Andrea Versteyl Rechtsanwälte and talked about “Recent jurisdiction in evaluating nitrogen input in FFH areas according to critical loads – requirements involved in process and legal reliability of evaluating”

Dr.-Ing. Stefan Balla

Dr.-Ing. Balla is with Bosch & Partner GmbH and spoke on “Current research results on investigating and evaluating nutrient input in susceptible biotopes”