Court tilts prohibition: Lavasand mining on the Scharteberg allowed again!

Court tilts prohibition: Lavasand mining on the Scharteberg allowed again!

A sensational judgment from Koblenz! The Rhineland-Palatinate Higher Administrative Court has decided that the ban on lava sand removal in the Natural monument in Scharteberg in the Vulkaneifel district is unlawful. The plaintiff, who is already building Lavasand, had sued the restrictive provisions that prohibited her for dismantling in the protected area.

At its core, it is about the regulation to ensure natural monuments in the Daun district, which protects the summit of the Schartberg above the height line 640. But the court made it clear that this regulation is ineffective because the prerequisites for the protection of the summit are not met. According to the Reichsnaturesgesetz, natural monuments must be special individual creations of nature that clearly stand out from their surroundings - and that is not the case here!

illegal prohibition canceled

The administrative court had previously dismissed the plaintiff's lawsuit, but the Higher Administrative Court raised this decision and declared the side provisions of the defendant State of Rhineland-Palatinate to be unlawful. The summit of the Schartberg is not sufficiently delimited from the environment, which means that it does not meet the criteria for protection as a natural monument. The court found that the recourse to the height line is only a card -like delimitation without the monument being recognizable in nature. Therefore, the ban on the mining cannot be based on the prescription of natural monuments Daun.

The judgment, which was announced on October 8, 2024, could have far -reaching consequences for lava sand in the region. However, the question of whether there is a ban on breakdown due to the location in the landscape protection area "between Ueß and Kyll" remains open and still has to be clarified in the administrative path. The plaintiff can now hope for a return to dismantling while the legal disputes about the Scharteberg continue.