Law on insect protection declared to have failed

Created: 2022-12-15Updated: 2022-12-15 10:22 am

A trainee lawyer sits in front of a volume of text “German Laws” in the district court.

© Oliver Berg/dpa/symbol image

Several environmental and nature conservation organizations have declared the talks about a law for more insect protection in Brandenburg to have failed.

The Brandenburg Nature Conservation Union (Nabu) and the Brandenburg Union for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND) blamed the State Farmers' Association and the two other coalition factions of SPD and CDU on Thursday in Potsdam.

Potsdam – Friedhelm Schmitz-Jersch from Nabu was disappointed.

"We can't just rely on voluntariness."

The negotiations dealt with the question of a ban on pesticides and nitrogen fertilizers in nature reserves from 2023 and in flora-fauna-habitat areas (FFH) from 2028, as well as compensation for farmers.

A binding regulation from 2028 was controversial among the SPD and CDU because the financing by the federal government and the EU was still unclear.

Most recently, according to the Greens, there was a struggle to remove FFH areas from the draft law and to ban fertilizer in nature reserves from 2023.

Green parliamentary group leader Benjamin Raschke said: "The process failed because there was no willingness to pass the cornerstones of a law now, but that was the prerequisite for putting money in the budget for it."

In February 2020, environmental and nature conservation associations as well as land user associations signed an agreement with the coalition factions to bring together two popular initiatives on insect protection.

Around 100,000 signatures came together for more insect protection.

dpa