Pressure on the federal government: Nature conservation policy: BUND takes action against traffic lights in Karlsruhe

The environmental association BUND files a constitutional complaint against the federal government’s nature conservation policy. The association in Berlin announced that the relevant documents had already been received by the judges in Karlsruhe on Tuesday evening. With the complaint, the association wants to force the traffic light government to present a “comprehensive legal concept” to protect biodiversity and to immediately stop the loss of species.

The speed of species extinction and nature destruction is “even more dramatic than the speed of the climate crisis” and yet too little is being done about it, explains the association. According to BUND, this is the first constitutional complaint of its kind in the world. Several individual plaintiffs have also joined, including the well-known actor Hannes Jaenicke and the conservationist Christof Martin.

Lawyer warns of “massive encroachments on freedom”

“The preservation of biodiversity is about nothing less than our livelihoods. However, nature in Germany is only inadequately protected and the loss is progressing,” explained BUND deputy federal chairwoman Myriam Rapior. She complains that although experts have been pointing out this problem for years, the government has failed to take action. As in the case of the climate constitutional complaints, the constitutional complaint will be legally represented by the Berlin law firm Baumann Rechtsanwälte.

According to BUND, Felix Ekardt from the Research Center for Sustainability and Climate Policy is also involved in the process as a representative. Humanity is heading “towards catastrophe” and is risking its livelihoods, he says. It’s about existential issues, such as whether soils continue to be fertile and plants can continue to be pollinated. If effective nature conservation is further postponed, it could only be “feasible with massive interventions in freedom” in the future, warns the lawyer and BUND state chairman in Saxony.

The international community is fighting for better nature conservation in Colombia

Since Monday, there has been a renewed international struggle to save biodiversity: negotiators from all over the world are coming together at the World Nature Conference in Cali, Colombia, to work out concrete steps to implement a global nature conservation agreement. Two years ago, around 200 countries in Montreal, Canada, agreed on 23 goals to be achieved by 2030. For example, it was agreed to protect at least 30 percent of the world’s land and sea areas. In addition, industrialized countries should provide around $20 billion annually by 2025 to protect biodiversity.

At the start of the conference, German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) admitted that the situation had “not gotten better” in the past two years.

It is currently difficult to predict whether the constitutional complaint in Karlsruhe can actually persuade the government to implement more effective nature conservation. The BUND and other environmental associations had their greatest success before the Federal Constitutional Court so far in 2021. At that time, the court essentially ruled that the federal government should not put off drastic steps to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions at the expense of the younger generation. The traffic light was then forced to quickly tighten up the Federal Climate Protection Act.