Rotterdam harbour looks to rabbits to help with expansion

The cabinet is set to announce a €50 million investment in the Port of Rotterdam for nature conservation measures, including releasing rabbits into the dunes, which would allow for harbour growth.

Permits for new businesses and expansion of existing enterprises have been at a virtual standstill for years over concerns about nitrogen pollution in protected areas surrounding the port.

Industry at the port has been shrinking in recent years, hamstrung by a lack of expansion and renovation options as a result of the nitrogen rules as well as pressure on the national electrical grid.

The plans, put together by the government, the city of Rotterdam, and the Port Authority, would involve exotic plants and insects as well as releasing native rabbits into the wild.

According to the project plan, titled “Roadmap to the granting of nature permits in the Port of Rotterdam,” rabbits create a “robust dune ecosystem that is resistant to nitrogen deposition.” The native rabbit population has seen a steep decline due to infectious disease.

The approach could ease some of the gridlock that has followed a Council of State ruling in 2019 on emission limits.

In May 2019, the Council of State ruled the government’s strategy for reducing excess nitrogen was in breach of EU directives on protecting vulnerable habitats and that the way the release of nitrogen was being calculated when assessing construction project licences was questionable.

Since then, efforts to cut pollution so far have largely failed and successive governments have been struggling to find a way to do so.

In June, the Dutch cabinet finalised an agreement on a new package of measures to reduce nitrogen-based pollution in the Netherlands with a budget of €20 billion to implement them.