Compensation for landscape protection in Telemark – the Court of Appeal must conduct a new hearing

The establishment of a landscape protection area in Telemark prevented the owner of an agricultural property within the area from carrying out a planned cultivation of approx. 145 acres adjacent to the milking field on the property. The area had previously been used for grazing and mowing. The Supreme Court, in contrast to the Court of Appeal, found that new cultivation would represent a changed and new use. Processing into fully cultivated land would entail significant encroachments on the field and the initiation of a new and significantly more intensive land use. The upgrade would also fall outside what could be considered a normal rationalisation of operations. The compensation condition in section 50 of the Natural Diversity Act - that the protection made current use more difficult - was then not met. The Court of Appeal's reassessment was set aside.

Read the whole judgment (Norwegian only)

Areas of law: Property law, tort law. Section 50 of the Nature Diversity Act. 

Key paragraphs: 49, 57, 66

Justices: Indreberg, Normann, Ringnes, Falch og konstituert dommer Elsheim