Protection of nature and bases for conservation

Federal nature conservation law

• regulations of the nature protection and conservation area issues on ferderal level
• most important instrument is the regulation of interference based on § 8, which obliges
  responsible parties to "refrain from avoidable interferences with nature and landscape
  as well as to compensate for unavoidable interferences by means of nature protection
  and conservation of the countryside" (§ 8 Abs. 2 BNatSchG)
• the erection of wecs is to be categorized as an interference with nature and countryside
• for the determination of the range of interference the impacts of wecs on nature and countryside
  are being studied

Landscape Law North Rhine-Westphalia

• guidelines of the Federal Nature Conservation Law are being further specified by the
  Landscape Law in North Rhine-Westphalia
• interference regulation is based on the Landscape Law in North Rhine-Westphalia in § 4
• wecs are generally considered an interference with nature according to the Landscape Law,
  "the erection of up to 2 wecs in close proximity, however, is NOT considered an interference
  with nature any longer according to the changed Landscape Law from June, 19th 1994