HELCOM RECOMMENDATION 14/4

Adopted 3 February 1993 having regard to Article 13, Paragraph b) of the Helsinki Convention

REDUCTION OF AMMONIA VOLATILIZATION FROM ANIMAL HOUSING

THE COMMISSION,

RECALLING Paragraph 1 of Article 6 of the Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area, 1974 (Helsinki Convention), in which the Contracting Parties undertake to take all appropriate measures to control and minimize land-based pollution of the marine environment of the Baltic Sea Area,

HAVING REGARD also to Article 3 of the Helsinki Convention, in which the Contracting Parties undertake individually or jointly to take all appropriate legislative, administrative or other relevant measures to prevent and abate pollution,

RECALLING FURTHER the Ministerial Declaration of 1988, the Baltic Sea Declaration of 1990 and the Baltic Sea Environmental Declaration of 1992, calling, inter alia, for a substantive reduction of the inputs caused by diffuse sources,

RECOGNIZING  the fact that a substantial part of the eutrophi­cation problems observed in the Baltic Sea Area are caused by nutrient inputs from diffuse sources,

DESIRING to limit this pollution,

RECOMMENDS to the Governments of the Contracting Parties to the Helsinki Convention that:

a)in order to reduce the ammonia emission from advanced livestock breeding, the overall excretion of nitrogen by li­vestock should be reduced by the use of

-high quali­ty and well-composed fodder, i.e., opti­mized amino acid composi­tion, a balanced car­bohydrate/protein ratio or enzymati­cally improved diges­tibility of the fodder,

-advanced feeding systems, i.e., phase feeding and integrated feed evaluation;

b)in order to reduce ammonia emission and excretion of nitrogen from advanced animal husbandry (livestock rearing)

-feeding tables and systems should be developed and applied within 5 years,

-standards for the quality of com­mercial­ly available fod­der, fod­der additives and use of on-farm produced fodder should be developed and applied;

c)in order to reduce the emitting surfaces, the ma­nure should be removed from the stables to an out­side storage as quickly as possible. The emitting surfaces should be kept as small as possible;

d)standards for drying of poultry manure as quickly as possible after excretion in housing systems where this is feasible (e.g. systems for egg lying hens) should be set within 5 years;

e)programmes should be developed and action taken to implement the above mentioned measures and to report on the effect of these measures or any other measures taken to reduce ammonia volatiliza­tion from animal housing,

RECOMMENDS FURTHER that the actions taken by the Contracting Parties, e.g. economic incentives, recommenda­tions, regulations, agricultural advice, should be reported to the Commission in 1997 and there­after every three years.