City and country in coherence
If we want to make the transition towards a sustainable regional landscape management in the Netherlands, we need future-proof governance and legal frameworks. NWO has awarded 5,5 million euros to the project ‘Fertile soils’. A consortium of knowledge institutes are working on this and professors Willem Janssen and Frank Groothuijse from the Utrecht University School of Law, will supervise a legal PhD research.
It becomes apparent that public authorities possess various legal instruments to drive positive change towards better valuation schemes, from developing shared visions on (area) transitions in terms of planning (e.g., Omgevingswet), to their actual incentivization via – currently underused – public contracts (120 billion each year) or subsidy schemes (e.g. Aanbestedingswet)
, according to Willem Janssen and Frank Groothuijse. A major obstacle remains as how to effectively deploy these instruments, whilst also respecting requirements of legitimacy, procedural, distributive and restorative justice in order to achieve more effective, equitable and cost and time efficient transition. In addition, you want to distribute the burdens and benefits of sustainability fairly.
Additional tasks and goals around sustainability
Despite the presence of various governance arrangements, being both more formal and informal, a directive role of public authorities is (again) increasingly essential to enhance their engagement with others (e.g. municipalities, provinces, water authorities, NGO’s). The objectives for responsible authorities in policy and law are manifold, yet often inadequately managed, resulting in unmet goals.
Issues such as nitrogen emissons, soil subsidence and water quality are politically charged and give rise to discussions.
In addition, governments have been given additional tasks and goals on climate change and sustainability. Issues such as nitrogen emissions, soil subsidence and water quality are politically charged and give rise to discussions. This makes the questions about who exactly is responsible for achieving these objectives, which legal instruments can be used for this and how these responsibilities and instruments relate to each other all the more important and urgent.
A legal researcher will focus on that. It is really a subject for a PhD research, says Willem Janssen enthusiastically. The transition to sustainable regional landscapes is an interesting multidisciplinary issue, which Feritile Soils will be working on. We are happy to sink our teeth into the legal part.
From Utrecht University, Dr. Martijn Kuller is also involved in the project. He is affiliated with the Faculty of Geosciences and the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development.
The project is called ‘Fertile soils for future generations integrated spatial strategies and effective governance for coherent rural regions’ and is led by Dr Jasper de Vries (WUR). Ten knowledge institutes and thirty societal partners are working together. For five years, they are investigating how rural areas and cities can work together on major challenges such as the agricultural transition, housing construction and climate-proof water management. More information can be found on the NWO website. This project is also supported by EWUU: the alliance of Eindhoven University of Technology, Wageningen University & Research, Utrecht University and University Medical Center Utrecht. And more specifically within EWUU: the Institute 4 a Circular Society.