Destruction of nature and topsoil cannot happen in Norway’s greenest municipality

OPINIONS: On 30 April and 7 May, the year’s most important case for the next of kin in Drammen municipality will be dealt with:

Then we will have politicians in the chairmanship and the municipal council decide whether we will allow enormous destruction of nature in the municipality’s new spatial plan – or whether we should be adults and refrain from more non-sustainable growth at the expense of nature, topsoil and outdoor life.

Some may remember the demonstrations against the initial processing of the plan in 2022? Knowledge of the nature crisis was good enough at the time that the political majority should not have decided to allow the demolition of, among other things, 1,644.8 acres of land (230 football pitches) filled with important natural diversity or precious topsoil. We knew exactly what we were doing – and since then we know even more:

Norway has signed the UN Convention on Nature, which obliges all countries to protect and restore 30% of their land and sea areas. This autumn, the Storting will consider a report to the Storting on how we will follow up on the nature agreement in Norway. The measures here will certainly give the municipalities a much stricter land use policy. Because today’s home-alone party with the local politicians cannot continue:

For example, it already is 448,805 cabins in Norway – but if all of today’s approved plans in municipal Norway are actually developed, then three and a half times as much nature will have to be razed as has already been done just to make even more cabins!

Do you set up corresponding calculations for what has been set aside for shopping centres, industry, housing estates and everything else that eats up nature, you will find that over 2100 km2 of nature has already been approved for development. NRK has surveyed 44,000 interventions in Norwegian nature over the past five years.

When we know that land use has changed contributes to at least 30% of climate change, and the world is constantly setting new heat records, so it is extremely unwise to continue escalating this loss of nature.

Fortunately, our municipal director suggests in her submission to the cases in the chairmanship and the municipal council to say no to 10 of the 23 area changes the municipal council adopted in the first hearing in 2022. She recommends, among other things, that the proposed destruction of the bay at Bokerøya must be stopped. It would just be missing, as to build down this ecosystem would be to go against everything we know about the catastrophic status of the fjord, and the action plan we have adopted to overcome it.

The municipal director also recommends to preserve large natural areas in places such as Austad, Galterud, Gjerpen, Nesbygda, Fjell and Svelvik. If these recommendations receive a majority, it will be a great joy for nature, animals, people and the climate, and will of course be wholeheartedly supported by us in Venstre.

However, we are very disappointed that the municipal director still recommends two major destructions in particular:

Around 1,000 acres of nature in the Solbergelva, where a huge area will be razed to build a decentralized housing estate that we do not need, which will result in greatly increased climate emissions as a result of more car driving, destroy important nature, and reduce access to land for those who already live there. To raze topsoil to create a landfill at Lindum. Here we refer to Simon Nordanger’s very good reader post for additional information.

We fail to understand why the municipal director proposes to enter into further negotiations with the state to be allowed to carry out these interventions: Firstly, both are completely in breach of the municipal plan’s own community section, and national goals for the conservation of nature and topsoil.

Second, it most likely will will only result in another unnecessary delay of the entire spatial planning process – as the state will most likely not allow any of these projects anyway. Then we might as well save ourselves the time of going through these negotiations. Business deserves speed in getting this land plan adopted, and all residents and landowners who are afraid of losing their beloved land do not deserve to be kept on the torture bench any longer than necessary. Negotiations on proposals that we know the state does not want are a drag that does no one any good.

We in the Liberal Party will therefore fight in order to prevent all development of important nature, topsoil and outdoor values ​​in Drammen, both in this round of final negotiations and further into the final phases until the final adoption of the spatial plan in spring 2025.

If Drammen is to be Norway’s greenest municipality, so we must also be best in class when it comes to nature conservation. Here we have high expectations for the Conservative Party, KrF, PP and other friends of nature within and outside the majority position.

We in Venstre are ready to cooperate with everyone about taking care of nature in Drammen! We say yes to leaving nature, topsoil and open air areas in the best possible condition for the next generation. At the same time, we say no to the destruction of nature in order to create short-term and unsustainable growth.

Of
Herman Ekle Lund
Drammen Left