There are precise rules concerning household livestock herds. For example, households are allowed to keep up to 30 chickens, although the rules on cocks vary from municipality to municipality. The general principle is that one is not allowed to keep large animals in an urban zone, apart from chickens and household pets. However, dispensation can be given, especially in the case of existing farm properties. Nevertheless, an injunction can always be issued if a livestock herd is the cause of serious nuisance for the surroundings.
If the environmental authority is of the opinion that a case is too petty, it has the right to refuse to consider it on the grounds that it is inconsequential for environmental protection. This applies, for example, to cases concerning crowing cocks.
Wood-burning stoves, or rather the smoke from them, are the cause of numerous complaints by neighbours, there being hundreds of such cases nationwide each year. As smoke nuisance is often attributable to inappropriate fuel, the Municipality’s reaction is normally to issue an injunction to the owner to fuel with virgin wood.
It is uncertain whether wood-burning stoves are the source of further pollution problems apart from the nuisance to neighbours. In any case, not much can be done about them. One can advise people as to what is defensible to burn in them, and how best to use them, and in the long term one can endeavour to develop more efficient stoves.
Progress with respect to the regulation of disputes is mainly
administrative, i.e. the solving of disputes between neighbours, the environmental
significance being minor.