Czech Green groups say lawmakers preparing to sacrifice arable land for development
In the words of Mark Twain, you should buy up land because they ain’t producing it any more. One might quibble with the accuracy of that statement then and now, because as the Dutch have amply proved land can be reclaimed. But the message, especially for the landlocked Czech Republic, holds good.
The pledge to stop the disappearance of good quality arable land already appears to have taken a considerable dent last year. Then it was decided that penalty payments levied for the use of arable land would be waived for motorways and other transport infrastructure and for industrial zones. In both cases the state is overwhelmingly responsible for both types of development.
But those changes appear to have been something of a Trojan Horse as regards the function of this particular tool aimed at preventing the loss of valuable arable land to other uses.
Environmental groups are now sounding the alarm about a fresh raft of proposals that would further weaken the existing mechanism for putting a brake on the loss of arable land. Proposals from the lower house of parliament would abolish the land use change charges for arable land taken for construction of regional and local roads and transport infrastructure and would cut the charges for land taken for the construction of family houses.
And another batch of amendments stemming from the upper house, the Senate, propose to do away with the charges altogether for land for family houses and for what are termed public interest projects at a local level.
“We are facing further exemptions which would completely destroy this tool.”
Daniel Vondrouš is an expert on environmental policy for the Czech group, Zelený Kruh. He warned that the proposed changes and weakening of the land use change charges taken together amount to this dismantling of one of the state’s most potent weapons for holding onto arable land. He first of all described how the charges function.
“They have several levels according to the quality of the soil and the environmental sensitivity of the landscape and they are functioning. In fact, after these fees were raised by law, the effect was that the taking of land for construction slowed down by a third and the situation got better. But over the last year, new exemptions were introduced and the tool began to function a lot worse and now we are facing further exemptions which would completely destroy this tool.”
Other tools for safeguarding arable land are local and regional land zoning plans and the obligation for local authorities to take a stand on whether building projects are acceptable. But the land use charges are seen as the most effective deterrent of the trio of tools.
To give a bit of context here, its estimated that in the Czech Republic arable land equivalent to the size of a normal sized football pitch disappears every week under concrete or some other material so that it is permanently lost to agricultural use.
Daniel Vondrouš says its clear who is leading the charge for the land use charges to be curbed and emasculated.
“The main forces are the construction and industrial lobby. They were the main backers of the land amendment to the law. Now, the main group trying to use their influence are in fact local mayors. The mayors are saying that we want the same exemptions that big industrial sites and the state got and we would like to construct new buildings in our towns and cities and use the land for houses for new families and that is why we are asking for further exemptions.”
Mr. Vondrouš warns though that the proposed Senate amendment to abolish land use is so vague in its definition of public interest that almost any construction project could benefit from it, including for example, a project to build a new supermarket if this was termed to be in the interest of the local community.
“The public interest is behind both sets of exemptions. The state says that new highways and industrial zones are in the public interest and mayors are saying that their developments and buildings are important to contribute to the development of regions and that is needed too. So that is used in both examples. In fact, the states as well as cities and regions are saying that they would like to support development rather than the protection of the landscape and protection of the soil.”
“Now, the main group trying to use their influence are in fact local mayors.”
Vondrouš says that current charges for taking arable land for construction can add up to more than 300 crowns per square metre, so this is a considerable saving for developers. And, it should perhaps be added, local councils earnings are related to the taxes they can levy on local companies and inhabitants based on their territory. So they have every interest in expanding their tax base even at the expense of agricultural land.
Given the current upswing in large parts of the construction market and the government urge to get key infrastructure and other projects moving again, Vondrouš warns that the impact of further exemptions to the charges will be very wide indeed.
“I expect that the pace at which we are losing land will be even higher than it was before the fees actually started working, before 2010. The main reason for that is that we are not in crisis now and we have quite high pressure for new buildings and construction. And at the same time the main tool for protection of that land would be stopped. So I expect that there will be a very rapid increase in construction on that land for a couple of years.”
Green groups, such as the Czech version of Friends of the Earth, Hnutí Duha, say the proposed moves are in direct conflict not just with the government’s pledge to safeguard arable land but with other promises as well, such as making the country more self sufficient in foodstuffs. The Czech record on self sufficiency has been deteriorating sharply over the last decades. Producing more locally has other benefit though such as lower transport costs and more local jobs.
“I expect that the pace at which we are losing land will be even higher than it was before the fees actually started working.”
It is also they say, in conflict, with the pledge to make use of more brownfield sites for development. The problem now, and even more so in future if the amendments are passed, is that it is just simpler for developers to build on greenfield sites.
Environmentalists add that it can take hundreds of years for the natural process to take place which results in good arable soil. Intensive cropping at the moment though means that the quality of a lot of Czech farmland is deteriorating fast with soil quality and erosion reckoned to be problem on around a third of arable land in use.
The government has promised to take measures to tackle that soil quality issue at the same time though that the land itself stands a greater chance of disappearing under the bulldozers.
