Abstract
Ecological compensation has had a relatively limited use in Sweden, mainly connected with protected areas where compensation is demanded or supported by law in the Environmental Code. Application of ecological compensation in municipal spatial planning in Sweden is still rare and only a few of the 290 municipalities in the country have developed routines for applying compensation in detailed development planning. There is also no direct support for ecological compensation in the Swedish Planning and Building Act. Nevertheless, there is a strong interest both from governmental agencies and from municipalities to increase the use of ecological compensation in spatial planning.
I will report some results from a recent research project (MuniComp) on the application of ecological compensation in municipal spatial planning in Sweden. Originating from the German compensation model and introduced into some south-western Swedish municipalities in the 1990s, compensation within detailed development planning has subsequently been adopted in some other municipalities, but with some variation in the details of implementation. Even if the compensation routines are mainstreamed into the detailed development planning system in these municipalities, it is essentially based on voluntary commitments with private developers since the legal system does not provide regulatory support for demanding compensatory measures of environmental damage. The project highlights a number of difficulties, shortages and areas for development in the implementation of ecological compensation in municipal spatial planning, related to e.g., documentation, evaluation, strategic goals, and application of the polluter pays principle. But most of all it illustrates a situation where implementation of ambitious national environmental objectives is obstructed by a planning and building legislation that does not communicate well with the main Swedish environmental legislation (the Environmental Code) and therefore does not provide much support for a no-net-loss or net-gain policy.
I will report some results from a recent research project (MuniComp) on the application of ecological compensation in municipal spatial planning in Sweden. Originating from the German compensation model and introduced into some south-western Swedish municipalities in the 1990s, compensation within detailed development planning has subsequently been adopted in some other municipalities, but with some variation in the details of implementation. Even if the compensation routines are mainstreamed into the detailed development planning system in these municipalities, it is essentially based on voluntary commitments with private developers since the legal system does not provide regulatory support for demanding compensatory measures of environmental damage. The project highlights a number of difficulties, shortages and areas for development in the implementation of ecological compensation in municipal spatial planning, related to e.g., documentation, evaluation, strategic goals, and application of the polluter pays principle. But most of all it illustrates a situation where implementation of ambitious national environmental objectives is obstructed by a planning and building legislation that does not communicate well with the main Swedish environmental legislation (the Environmental Code) and therefore does not provide much support for a no-net-loss or net-gain policy.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 2022 |
| Event | Dresden Nexus Conference 2022: Biodiversity - Stewardship for vital resources: Session 3: Biodiversity Offsets / No Net Loss / Net Gain - Online conference, Dresden, Germany Duration: 2022-May-23 → 2022-May-25 http://2022.dresden-nexus-conference.org/ |
Conference
| Conference | Dresden Nexus Conference 2022: Biodiversity - Stewardship for vital resources |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Germany |
| City | Dresden |
| Period | 22-05-23 → 22-05-25 |
| Internet address |
Swedish Standard Keywords
- Other Earth and Related Environmental Sciences (10599)
Keywords
- Ecological compensation
- municipalities
- Spatial planning
