"Finally" a landscape conservation association for the district - Environment Minister Glauber congratulates

Created: 05/12/2022, 06:30

By: Veronika Ahn-Tauchnitz

Bavaria's Minister of the Environment, Thorsten Faithr, congratulated the founding of the landscape conservation association.

© arp

It's done: On Tuesday evening, the landscape conservation association was founded in the district office.

Farmers, conservationists and local politicians are equally represented on the board.

There were congratulations from Bavaria's Environment Minister Thorsten Faithr.

Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen

– "Finally," said District Administrator Josef Niedermaier and took a deep breath.

And by that he didn't just mean that after almost a year it had finally been possible to find a date for the inaugural meeting.

The landscape conservation association (LPV) has a long history.

"It was not an easy birth," said Niedermaier.

The attempt to bring agriculture, nature conservation and local politics together on an equal footing failed again and again.

Even now, only 14 of the 21 district municipalities are on board.

Especially in the Isarwinkel, the skepticism that was brought to the committees from agriculture often prevailed in the decisions of the municipal councils.

District Administrator Niedermaier relieved

"They are blessed with wonderful natural beauty," said Environment Minister Thorsten Faithr.

There are unique moors, with the Walchensee and Kochelsee "two jewels", with the Sylvenstein "the strongest element in flood protection", and the biodiversity in the Alpine region cannot be compared with anything else in Germany.

But it is precisely this unique beauty that also ensures that more and more people are flocking to nature.

A tendency that the pandemic has reached a level "that is extremely challenging," said Glauber.

He knows that at the time when the fauna-flora-habitat (FFH) areas were designated, "a lot of trust was lost," said Glauber in the direction of farmers.

"It's about earning that trust again bit by bit.

The landscape conservation association is a wonderful key to this.” Because in the LPV, farmers, nature conservation associations and local politicians meet “on an equal footing,” said Glauber.

Each group is represented by four members on the board.

"And the Environment Minister from Franconia doesn't tell you how you should preserve your cultural landscape either.

You decide that among yourselves.”

Bavaria's Environment Minister Faithr at the inaugural meeting in the Tölz district office

Beate Krettinger, Bavarian state coordinator at the German Association for Landscape Management, also reminded us that the path to the LPV in the district was not easy.

"But that's no problem.

From now on we will all pull together.” With the founding, one of the last white spots and the map will be erased.

The LPV will approach all stakeholders who have already tended and preserved the landscape," said Krettinger.

But there are certainly many new tasks waiting, after all there are so many unique areas with the moors, litter meadows and humpback meadows, among which there are definitely some "that still need care - even if a lot has already happened".

In fact, over the past few decades it has been shown "that landscape conservation associations are good at opening up additional funding," said Krettinger.

The farmers who are commissioned by the LPV with the care measures then benefit from this.

"75 percent of all requested funds benefit the farmers," said Krettinger.

"More than 3,000 farmers are partners of the landscape conservation associations," added Glauber.

The board: (from left) Christian Eiring (machine ring), Martin Kiechl (Isar Valley Association), 3rd chairman Klaus Mair (BBV), Lisa Sappl (working group for rural agriculture), Prof. Wolfgang Goymann (district council), Ursula Fiechtner (BBV ), 2nd Chairman Walter Wintersberger (LBV), Chairman Michael Häsch (District Council), Father Karl Geißinger (Center for Environment and Culture) and Friedl Krönauer (Bund Naturschutz).

Two local politicians are missing: the mayors Ingo Mehner (Bad Tölz) and Anton Margreiter (Greiling).

© LRA

The unanimous resolution of the statutes was only a formality.

The paper had been extensively discussed in various committees.

The four representatives from agriculture, forestry and local politicians were also elected unanimously.

In fact, there were only four pre-determined candidates at a time.

Friedl Krönauer prevails in the election

It was more exciting with the representatives of the nature conservation associations.

Nikolaus Riesch from the Farmers' Association surprisingly brought a fifth candidate into play with Wolfgang Morlang, Chairman of the District Hunting Association in Bad Tölz.

With 15 votes, however, he ended up behind Friedl Krönauer, district chairman of the Bund Naturschutz, who won 17 of the 26 votes.

The Dietramszell farmer and CSU district councilor Michael Häsch was elected chairman, who had initiated the foundation and pushed it forward again and again.

His deputies are Walter Wintersberger, district head of the state association for bird protection, and Münsinger organic farmer and Greens district councilor Klaus Mair.

In the course of the referendum "Save the bees" and its consequences, it became clear to him.

"that we only talk to each other, but not to each other," said Häsch.

"We have to bring nature conservation organizations and agriculture to the table and discuss the problems." Each side is campaigning, "but little comes of it below," said Häsch.

“We need a holistic approach.

I look forward to controversial discussions.”

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