Over 10,000 ha
Nationwide
Full-service

Buy compensation areas

✓ Compensation areas from our own portfolio ✓ over 10,000 ha nationwide ✓ authority coordination, implementation and monitoring included. Full-service since 2012.

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10,000+
ha available
25 years
Land securing
Single
Source

Suitable compensation areas for your construction project

Anyone who significantly impacts nature and landscape must compensate for or replace the impairment under §§ 13 to 15 of the Bundesnaturschutzgesetz. In many permitting procedures, a calculated proof is not enough; a specific site is needed on which a specific measure is constructed and permanently secured.

This is exactly where the usual bottleneck arises. Suitable plots in the right natural region are scarce, owners must be found and persuaded, securing the site takes time in the land register, and once construction is complete, a management and reporting obligation follows for decades. For project developers, this is a side issue that ends up determining the main schedule.

greeNature solves this by bringing the site with us. We hold our own portfolio of more than 10,000 hectares, continuously acquire further sites and manage them for the entire commitment period. You commission the compensation service, not a bundle of individual trades.

Compensation, replacement and payment in lieu

The law follows a clear order of priority. Impairments must first be avoided. What is unavoidable is compensated, meaning restored at the site of the impact so that the impaired functions of the natural balance are replaced in kind. If compensation is not possible, replacement follows: an equivalent enhancement within the affected natural region, which does not have to be of the same kind. Only if neither compensation nor replacement is possible does a payment in lieu come into consideration.

In practice, replacement is the most common case, because there is rarely room at the site of the impact for restoration in kind. This is good news for project developers: the search area is larger, and the measure can be placed where it has the greatest ecological effect.

What we take on

  • Site provision. Access to our own portfolio, supplemented by targeted acquisition where a specific location is required.
  • Technical planning. A measure concept based on the impact assessment, tailored to biotope types, soil function, water balance and target species.
  • Authority coordination. Coordination with the lower nature conservation authority, specialist authorities and, where necessary, the forestry and water authorities.
  • Legal securing. Easements, contracts, entry in the compensation register.
  • Construction. Tendering and management of the construction works, planting, groundworks, water body construction.
  • Management and monitoring. Development management, ongoing maintenance, performance monitoring and auditable documentation for the entire duration.

The process in four steps

  1. Clarify the requirement. We evaluate the impact assessment and clarify the required spatial relationship.
  2. Allocate a site. From the portfolio or through targeted acquisition, always within the appropriate natural region.
  3. Manage implementation. Technical planning, authority coordination, securing and construction.
  4. Secure the evidence. Inspection, registration, management and performance monitoring over the commitment period.

Regional allocation: federal state, natural region, district

Compensation is tied to place. Which site is suitable for your project is decided along three levels: the federal state with its assessment procedure, the major natural region D01 to D73 with its ecological profile, and the district with the practice of its local lower nature conservation authority.

greeNature covers all three levels. On this website’s federal state, natural region and district pages, you will find the relevant legal basis, the characteristic habitats and the typical compensation approaches for the region.

For landowners

The flip side of the demand for land is an opportunity for owners. Anyone who owns agricultural land with weak productivity can provide it as a compensation area without giving up ownership. greeNature takes on the implementation, management and monitoring, and a usage payment is made for providing the land. For details, see the page for landowners.

Your benefits

Faster permitting

Available sites and ready-made concepts noticeably shorten your permitting procedure.

No tied-up resources

Your team does not need to search for sites or manage contracts. We take this on completely.

Cost and planning certainty

You know the scope and effort early on. Unpleasant surprises during the procedure are eliminated.

Frequently asked questions

Good to know

Whenever the permitting authority requires a close spatial and functional relationship between the impact and the compensation. This is often the case where particular biotope types or soil functions are affected, where a measure must connect to a specific water body or habitat network, or where species protection requirements also apply. Municipal bylaws and urban development agreements also sometimes provide for site-based compensation. Eco-points, by contrast, are the faster route where the authority accepts a calculated offset from a recognised eco-account. Which route fits is clarified in discussion with the relevant nature conservation authority, and we take on exactly this coordination.
It starts with evaluating the impact assessment: how large is the compensation requirement, which biotope types and functions are affected, and what spatial relationship does the authority require. We then propose sites from our portfolio that fit technically and spatially, and develop a measure concept. We coordinate this concept with the lower nature conservation authority, secure the site legally, construct the measure and have it inspected. We then take on management, performance monitoring and documentation. At every stage, you receive the documents your permitting procedure needs.
The securing must last for as long as the impairment caused by the impact continues. For permanent impacts such as buildings, transport routes or pipeline and cable routes, this means the site is secured indefinitely. Depending on state law and administrative practice, this is legally secured through easements, limited personal easements in favour of the authority, urban development agreements or entry in the compensation register. The specific management and maintenance obligations are set out in the permit decision and, for private project developers, often run for 25 years. greeNature manages this for the entire duration.
Both are possible, and in practice the second route is the usual one. In most cases, you do not acquire the plot of land but the legally secured compensation service on it. The site remains in greeNature's holding or with the original owner, and the measure is secured in favour of your project and recorded in the compensation register. This saves you land acquisition, land register administration and the permanent responsibility for management and monitoring. Where land acquisition is expressly desired or required by the authority, we can arrange for that too.
Sites with currently low ecological value are particularly suitable, because the achievable enhancement is greatest there. These include intensively used arable land, intensively managed grassland, structurally poor coniferous stands, slopes at risk of erosion, waterlogged hollows and narrow residual parcels with weak productivity. Also decisive are the location within the appropriate natural region, a clear ownership situation and the possibility of securing the measure permanently in law. Sites within protected areas or with existing compensation commitments are, by contrast, mostly unsuitable, because no additional enhancement can be credited there.
This is a normal part of the business and is factored into the measure concepts. Weather, browsing damage, flooding or pressure from invasive species can delay development. Performance monitoring captures such deviations, leading to corrective action, such as replanting, a changed mowing regime or additional management work. Because greeNature keeps construction, management and monitoring in one hand, adjustments are made without you, as the project developer, having to place a further order. We document both the deviation and the action taken to the authority.
Not automatically. The impact mitigation regulation under §§ 13 to 15 BNatSchG and special species protection under § 44 BNatSchG are separate levels of assessment. A compensation area can take on species protection functions, but for this it must be specifically tailored to the affected species, lie within the spatial context of the occurrence, and already be effective before the impact takes place. This dual function is possible and can make sense in individual cases, but it must be technically justified and confirmed by the authority. greeNature examines this as part of the measure planning and implements CEF and FCS measures separately where necessary.
Get in touch

Enquire about compensation areas for your project

Tell us the location of the impact, the compensation requirement and the schedule. We will check which sites from our portfolio fit.

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+49 6486 204005-0 vertrieb@greenature.de Gröbn 1, 84556 Kastl