Buy eco-points

Buying eco-points: the fast route to compensation evidence

Every construction project that significantly impacts nature and landscape must compensate for or replace the impairments caused, under §§ 13 to 15 of the Bundesnaturschutzgesetz. How large the requirement is results from the impact assessment in the permitting procedure. The result is a figure in value points, and this figure must be covered before the permit is granted.

There are two routes to this cover. Either the project developer constructs a compensation area itself, or it takes over eco-points from an officially recognised eco-account. In practice, the second route is usually the faster one, because the measure there is already implemented, assessed and recognised. It removes the need to search for suitable plots, negotiate with owners, pre-finance the construction and wait for the development time until a measure achieves its ecological effect.

greeNature has operated its own eco-accounts since 2012 and holds a site portfolio of more than 10,000 hectares. You buy eco-points from completed pools and thereby gain planning certainty for your permitting schedule.

How eco-points arise

An eco-point represents the difference between the ecological condition of a site before and after the enhancement. The assessment is generally based on biotope types, supplemented by criteria such as soil function, water balance, climate protection function or significance for habitat network connectivity. The lower the starting value and the higher the target condition achieved, the greater the enhancement and therefore the point score.

Typical measures in our eco-accounts are:

• Water body and floodplain restoration. Removing reinforcement structures, reconnecting oxbows, developing riparian buffer strips and floodplain forest structures.
• Extensively managed grassland. Converting intensively used arable and grassland areas into species-rich meadows with adapted mowing or extensive grazing.
• Woody and fringe structures. Establishing hedgerows, field copses, traditional orchards and near-natural forest mantles as habitat and connectivity elements.
• Rewetting. Raising the water level on drained fen and raised bog sites, creating small water bodies and wet hollows.
• New afforestation and forest conversion. Establishing site-appropriate, climate-stable broadleaf and mixed woodland, converting structurally poor coniferous stands.

All measures are coordinated with the relevant nature conservation authority before recognition, constructed, assessed and subsequently managed on a permanent basis.

Assessment under BayKompV, BKompV and state law

Compensation law is, in essential parts, state law. This has immediate practical consequences: a point value from one federal state cannot be transferred to another, and the procedures differ considerably in system and level of detail.

In Bavaria, the Bayerische Kompensationsverordnung (BayKompV) applies, with its biotope value list and the point system built on it. For projects under federal jurisdiction, for example federal trunk roads, federal railway lines or extra-high-voltage power lines in the federal requirements plan, the Bundeskompensationsverordnung (BKompV) applies. The other states work with their own compensation and eco-account ordinances, some with biotope value procedures, some with different assessment models.

greeNature calculates under both federal systems and under the respective state law. Which basis is relevant for your project depends on the location and on the jurisdiction of the permitting authority. On the pages for the individual federal states, you will find the regulations that apply in each case.

Spatial relationship: why the natural region matters

Compensation is meant to take effect where the impairment arises. That is why permitting authorities require a spatial relationship between the impact and the compensation. Depending on the state, this relationship is made concrete via the district, the natural region or the affected major natural region.

Germany’s natural region classification divides the country into major units from D01 in the North German coastal area to D73 in the Alps. Each unit has its own profile of geology, soil, climate, water balance and historical land use, and this determines which measures make technical sense and which target species are relevant. An eco-point from the Fränkisches Keuper-Liasland is therefore not the same as one from the Niedersächsisches Geest- und Moorland.

greeNature holds sites and eco-accounts across all natural regions and allocates to your impact the stock that fits both the natural region and the law.

Process in four steps

1. Analyse the requirement. We record the assessed compensation requirement, the location of the impact by district and natural region, and the assessment procedure to be applied.
2. Select measures. From our completed eco-accounts, we allocate measures that fit the impact both technically and spatially.
3. Coordinate with the authority. We coordinate with the relevant lower nature conservation authority and deliver the documents for the compensation evidence.
4. Debit and register. The eco-points are debited from the eco-account and recorded in the compensation register. You receive auditable documentation.

The Bavarian route in detail: BayKompV, UNB and the Ökoflächenkataster

Bavaria has developed the eco-account concept furthest, so it is worth taking a closer look at the procedural steps. What applies here is set out in Part 4 of the Bayerische Kompensationsverordnung, in §§ 13 to 17 BayKompV.

Who may operate an eco-account commercially. Under § 13 Abs. 3 BayKompV, state recognition from the Bayerisches Landesamt für Umwelt (LfU) is required for anyone wishing to operate eco-accounts commercially. Recognition requires the applicant to offer sufficient assurance of capability, professional qualification and reliability. greeNature is state-recognised under this provision and operates its own eco-accounts in Bavaria.

Which measures may enter the eco-account. § 14 BayKompV sets a lower threshold: an eco-account measure must achieve at least 15,000 value points of enhancement, or the site must cover at least 2,000 square metres. Where there is particular ecological significance, for example a high value of the starting condition, smaller measures are possible in justified cases.

How the site enters the Ökoflächenkataster. Registration under § 15 BayKompV requires confirmation under Art. 8 Abs. 1 BayNatSchG as well as the written consent of the measure operator and the landowner. The lower nature conservation authority (UNB) confirms the starting condition of the site and the value points under Anlage 3.1 of the BayKompV, based on an assessment proposal submitted by the measure operator. The register records, among other things, the precise site boundaries, the Gemarkung and Flurstück number, the natural region, the starting condition and the target condition. Under § 17 Abs. 3 BayKompV, these sites are publicly viewable, with personal data excluded.

What debiting means. For binding use as a compensation or replacement measure, the UNB confirms under § 16 Abs. 1 BayKompV the extent to which the site has been enhanced since being entered into the eco-account. Once the allocation becomes legally final, the site is transferred from the eco-account into the compensation measures section of the Ökoflächenkataster. Only then is your compensation officially documented.

The time bonus. § 16 Abs. 3 BayKompV rewards an eco-account measure being constructed long before the impact. For each calendar year of early realisation, there is a surcharge of three percent on the established enhancement, without compound interest and capped at a maximum of ten years. The calculation starts from the calendar year in which the UNB confirmed the construction of the measure. A site constructed early therefore brings in more value points than the same measure implemented shortly before the impact.

Why eco-points are tradeable at all. § 17 Abs. 2 BayKompV expressly permits transferring only the value points to a third party, without the ownership of the land. This requires that the measure has been legally secured since the point of debiting under § 11 Abs. 2 BayKompV. This is the legal basis allowing you, as a project developer, to acquire eco-points while the site, management and monitoring remain permanently with us.

Different regulations apply to projects outside Bavaria and to projects under federal jurisdiction. However, the system of banking, official confirmation, debiting and register-keeping is found in similar form in most states, with different terminology and thresholds.

What eco-points do not cover

Eco-points settle the impact mitigation regulation, but not every obligation under nature conservation law. Three distinctions matter in practice.

Species protection. Special species protection under § 44 BNatSchG is a separate level of assessment. If a protected species loses breeding sites or resting places due to the project, advance CEF measures are needed that take effect within the spatial context and before the impact occurs. A distant eco-account cannot achieve this.

Forestry law. Where woodland is used, the respective state forestry law requires replacement afforestation. This obligation exists in addition to compensation under nature conservation law.

Protected areas. If the project lies within, or affects, an FFH or bird sanctuary site, an impact assessment is required. Its requirements cannot be met through eco-points.

greeNature covers all these strands, so you do not have to manage nature conservation law, species protection law and forestry law separately.

Who works with us

Our clients include grid operators and infrastructure companies such as DB InfraGO, TenneT TSO, Amprion, Open Grid Europe and OMV Deutschland, as well as research institutions such as the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. We also support project developers, municipalities and medium-sized project sponsors.

What these projects have in common is time pressure in the permitting procedure and the wish not to break compensation down into individual trades. This is exactly what our full-service approach is built for: one point of contact, one contract, continuous responsibility from the site to the monitoring.