Order no. 591 on subsidies for fallow buffer zones along rivers and lakes.

The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries of Denmark may grant to owners and tenants of farms to open streams and lakes over 100 m in order to establish and maintain buffer zones in agricultural farming. Request for such subsidies shall be controlled and administered by the Ministry. The subsidy commitment period goes from 1 September in the year of application and ends on 31 August five years later. The application applies to areas located along open streams or lakes over 100 m , to areas beginning throughout a length of less than 10 and not more than 20 meters wide, running from the river or the lake's upper edge, to areas that have been classified for non-agricultural exploitation, including small biotopes. Agricultural exploited areas do not however include forests and production of evergreen conifers or areas implementing subsidy grants in accordance to Order No. 140 of 10 March 2005, Order No. 85 of 27 January 2005, Order No. 883 of 31 October 2002 and Order no. 893 of 22 September 2005. During the committed period, these areas must not be converted, fertilized, treated with plant protection and fertilizing substances, as well as not being irrigated, used for agricultural production, exploited by incompatibility of vegetation nor used for lucrative purposes incompatible with the cultivation of crops. The Minister shall grant subsidies if the conversion is of significant benefit to the environment and if the existing commitments are significantly improved by them. The yearly subsidy shall be equivalent to 1 200 DKK/hectare; if the total amount exceeds such value, it may be co-financed be EU funding.
The Order consists of 13 Chapters: Content (1); Definitions (2); Administration (3); Commitment period and conditions (4); Amendments of commitment and entry into force (5); Calculation of subsidy (6); Subsidies (7); Notification duties (8); Loss and recovery of subsidy (9); Force majeure (10); Appeals (11); Penalties (12); entry into force (13).