Adaptive environmental legislation for ecological water quality – Danish
Nitrate Regulation
Ecological water quality has been a major concern in Danish environmental policy and legislation since the
mid 80’ies. As the major contributor to pollution of the aquatic environment agricultural nitrate pollution has
been subjected to continued reduction targets at national policy level as well as a comprehensive and
detailed regulation of fertilizer use. However, the ecological quality of in particular coastal waters has not yet
improved significantly. So, the question is to what extent the Danish nitrate regulation expresses an adaptive
approach in dealing with nitrate pollution and whether there are any lessons to be learned when
implementing the EU Water Framework Directive. Environmental regulation may include adaptive elements
at different levels, i.e. the overall policy level, a (strategic) planning level, general regulation and decisionmaking in individual cases. Ideally, adaptiveness should be reflected at all levels. An important distinction is,
however, whether the adaptiveness only refers to the overall ecological status or whether it refers to the
status of specific ecosystems or aquifers, i.e. an ecosystem approach. The latter presupposes that
knowledge about the sensitivity of specific ecosystems or aquifers feeds into the regulatory system in order
to adjust targets as well as measures. This is a key challenge when implementing an adaptive environmental
planning system as reflected in e.g. the EU Water Framework Directive. With the purpose of shedding light
on such challenges this paper aims to identify adaptive elements of Danish nitrate policy and legislation
through the last 28 years. In addition we will explore possible new or improved adaptive elements in nitrate
legislation.
Keywords: environmental law, adaptive environmental planning, ecosystem approach, nitrate regulation,
water quality
Lasse Baaner & Helle Tegner Anker, IFRO, Faculty of Science, Copenhagen University
lb@ifro.ku.dk, hta@ifro.ku.dk