Landscape management plan (LBP) for wind farms in Germany
Landscape management plan (LBP) for wind farms in Germany: it assesses interventions in nature and landscape and shows how to avoid them.
Wind turbines intervene in nature and landscape, for example through foundations, access roads and crane hardstandings. The impact mitigation regulation of the Federal Nature Conservation Act therefore obliges those causing the intervention to follow a clear order: significant adverse effects must be avoided, and unavoidable ones must be compensated or replaced. An intervention is avoidable if there are reasonable alternatives that serve the same purpose at the same location with fewer adverse effects. Compensation restores the impaired functions in a like-for-like way, replacement in an equivalent way within the affected natural region. If an intervention can neither be avoided nor compensated or replaced within a reasonable period, and the interests of nature conservation and landscape management take precedence in the balancing exercise, it must not be permitted.
The landscape management plan (Landschaftspflegerischer Begleitplan) brings this information together in text and maps. It describes the location, type, extent and timing of the intervention as well as the planned measures for avoidance, compensation and replacement, including the availability of the land required. Where relevant, the plan also contains information on the Natura 2000 network and on advance compensation measures. The authority may additionally require expert reports where it needs them for its assessment. Which areas a plant occupies permanently and temporarily follows from the information in the technical plant reports.
Compensation and replacement measures must be maintained for the required period and legally secured. Agricultural structural interests must be taken into account, so it must first be examined whether de-sealing, re-connecting habitats or other measures are possible without using agricultural land. If a permitted intervention cannot be compensated, a replacement payment is due. It is calculated from the average costs of the measures that cannot be carried out, including planning, maintenance, provision of land and administration, is in principle paid before the intervention and flows into nature conservation measures, preferably in the affected region. How the assessment and amount of the replacement payment are regulated in detail differs by federal state.
What is essential is that the measures suit the site and are demonstrably documented in the procedure. Typical building blocks are a compact layout that limits fragmentation, use of existing paths and substations, and restoration of temporary areas with site-adapted seed and species-specific construction-time restrictions, where these are required according to the site surveys. Compensation areas should be defined before construction starts and implemented early. The earlier biology, engineering and permitting work on the plan together, the lower the risk of requests for additional information. At EWS, it is prepared by a team that combines engineering and nature conservation: our biology team covers birds, bats, amphibians, reptiles, insects and botany, and the permitting department coordinates closely with it from the start. We align the plan with the other documents: with technical support for the BImSchG procedure, the detailed surveys for the special species protection assessment (saP) and the air quality assessment.
