Management of Ecological Compensation Measures

CODE24—Corridor Development Rotterdam–Genoa, a project approved under the Strategic Initiatives Framework of the INTERREG IVB program, indicates a future development of the major European north-south axis connecting the Dutch port of Rotterdam and the Italian port of Genoa. Fifty percent of the north-south rail freight is operated along this corridor where 70 million inhabitants are living in this highly populated catchment area. Within the overall project CODE24, one action is focusing on innovative methods and solutions to reduce the negative impact of the corridor’s development on the environment. In a European project context, a comparison has been done of planning methods and policies concerning environmental compensation management caused by building and infrastructure projects. Partners from the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Italy were involved in the evaluation of different policies. The main aim of this action is to show how development and infrastructure projects along the corridor could be harmonised with national and European regulations related to nature and environmental protection. The strong linkage between possible impact and compensation measures needs to be more adequately managed in the future. Although legal preconditions for pooling and stocking of real estate and other compensation measures for major infrastructure projects were accomplished, their realisation and the implementation of impact regulations are often ineffective in respect of sustainability. As a result of questionnaires and interviews for new, innovative and successful approaches for managing ecological compensation measures, the main objective remains to encounter the problem of finding suitable sites for compensation measures. The diversity of existing regulations concerning ecological compensation has been found to be extremely high. Some partner countries currently discuss or even prepare common regulations for ecological compensation. This adoption of a legal framework can be seen as a positive development in nature conservation policy to enhance a wider acceptance and transparency for implementation. A large-scale impact, such as a linear infrastructure development, requires a large-scale compensation. Stakeholders on a regional level should use the opportunity for necessary large-scale nature conservation projects and compensation pool-building. Coherent compensation pool-building, managed within an overall planning concept, will bring forward strategies for coherent sites and effective and sustainable measures that will show visible effects and real habitat improvements.