Farmland into forest: Denmark's radical deal to cut fertilizer usage

Denmark will convert up to 15 percent of its farmland into forest and natural habitats in an effort to reduce fertilizer usage, which has resulted in severe oxygen depletion in Danish waters as well as the loss of marine life.

The deal also saw MPs agree to plant one billion trees over the next 20 years. 

The government called Monday's agreement "the biggest change to the Danish landscape in over 100 years."

"Danish nature will change in a way we have not seen since the wetlands were drained in 1864," said Jeppe Bruus, head of Denmark's Green Tripartite Ministry. The ministry was created to implement a green deal reached in June among farmers, the industry, the labor unions and environmental groups.

Under the agreement, $6.1 billion has been earmarked to acquire land from farmers over the next two decades.

Danish forests will grow on an additional 250,000 hectares (618,000 acres). Another 140,000 hectares (346,000 acres), currently cultivated on climate-damaging low-lying soils, must be converted to nature. 

Denmark is among the most intensively cultivated countries in the world with almost two-thirds of its territory farmed, while 14.6 percent of land is covered by forests.

The deal was reached by the three-party Danish government — made up of the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the center Moderates — and backed by the Socialist People's Party, the Conservatives, Liberal Alliance and the Social Liberal Party.

A vote in parliament on the deal is considered a formality.

In June, the government said livestock farmers will be taxed for the greenhouse gasses emitted by their cows, sheep and pigs from 2030. 

This makes Denmark the first country to impose a carbon tax on agriculture as it targets a major source of methane emissions, one of the most potent gasses contributing to global warming.

Reducing emissions from agriculture, Denmark's largest source of greenhouse gases, has been a major hurdle for lawmakers seeking to achieve a legally binding 2030 target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent from 1990 levels.

Oxygen levels in Danish waters reached alarmingly low levels this year, due to the runoff of nutrients from fertilizers in lowlands.