"The loss of natural assets can never be replaced": Lignite mining in Lützerath threatens biodiversity
Created: 01/14/2023, 08:24
By: Jana Ballweber
When the bucket-wheel excavators roll up in Lützerath, it means the loss of habitat for many animal species.
Renaturation, on the other hand, does not help much, says an expert.
Lützerath – In the ongoing dispute over possible lignite mining in the North Rhine-Westphalian village of Lützerath, the fronts have become even more entrenched.
The state government made up of CDU and Greens, together with the energy company RWE, are insisting on mining the lignite under the village.
Climate activists occupy the village to prevent mining.
But in addition to the negative consequences for the climate if the coal under Lützerath were still used to generate energy, opencast lignite mining also has a direct impact on the environment, as summarized by fr.de.
Huge bucket-wheel excavators remove meters of soil containing the coal.
The climate movement argues that if the climate targets are to be met, the coal under Lützerath must remain in the ground.
© IMAGO/Christoph Hardt
Lignite mining in Lützerath puts a strain on the animal world
A burden for many animal species, says Dirk Jansen, Managing Director at BUND Nordhein-Westfalen: "Lignite opencast mining and all the collateral damage it causes represent the greatest possible intervention in nature, the landscape, the water balance and the entire basis of life," he told the
National Geographic
magazine .
How great the burden on biodiversity is is different for each opencast mine.
In the Hambach Forest, for example, it was possible to legally enforce a freeze on clearing because the forest was the habitat of numerous endangered species.
The environmentalists were able to save 650 hectares of forest there.
BUND suspects biodiversity around Lützerath
The situation is different in Lützerath.
Because around the village there is mainly agricultural land.
However, that does not mean that numerous animals will not disappear with the village, according to Jansen: "Despite the intensive agricultural use, the area is species-rich: many species of birds live here, such as the lark, corn bunting, wheatear or whinchalice".
Due to the mild temperatures, which are unusual for this time of year, many birds have already started to build their nests, also around Lützerath.
When the bucket wheel excavators approach, there is not much left of the animal and plant world.
© Peter Endig/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa/Archive image
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According to Jansen, nobody can currently say exactly which animals are still in the area around Lützerath.
Many would be lying in their hibernation at the moment, unsuspecting.
Other endangered species, such as the European hamster, have long since disappeared from the region with its numerous opencast pits.
The field hamster, for example, cannot live without the loess sediment that is removed together with the coal in opencast mining.
Lützerath: Renaturation of opencast pits does not save biodiversity
For this reason, Jansen has little hope in the promised renaturation efforts of the energy companies: "No matter how good future recultivation may be - it can never replace the loss of natural assets." Experience has shown that newly created forest areas without deadwood are not well accepted by many species .
Nevertheless, Jansen remains optimistic.
The situation would look much worse if the climate movement didn't exist, according to the environmentalist.
"Of course we don't let ourselves get frustrated, because we've also had successes to report."
(Jana Ballweber)