Germany

“As part of Arbor Day, the German development minister, Gerd Müller, announced in Munich his ministry's support for an ambitious goal promoted by a German non-government organization (NGO) called Plant-for-the-Planet. ‘No forest, no life, no oxygen to breathe,' Minister Müller said. ‘Germany's development ministry puts the conservation of forests and of climate stability high up on its policy agenda...'

The World Bank . http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.FRST.ZS?locations=DE.

“As a German environmentalist traveling abroad, I have frequently encountered a sense of envy: man, you have it so good! Strict laws, world-class green technology firms, the phase-out of nuclear power and a powerful green party — observers from other countries have come to watch German environmentalism with a mix of admiration and awe.”

“On June 30, 2011, the German parliament put an end to nuclear power...The law specified that eight reactors would shut down immediately and that the remaining nine units would need safety checks and go offline until 2022. At the same time, the government pledged to promote renewable energies. Two years after Fukushima, the decision stands out internationally as by far the most vigorous response to the nuclear disaster in Japan.”

“One hundred years since hunting nearly wiped wolves out in Germany, they are moving out from their last bastion in the forests on the Polish border. While 11 years ago there was one pack, there are now 12, and the return of the wolf to all of Germany, said Professor Beata Jessel, head of Germany’s Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, is now “unstoppable”. The two-year study by the agency has surprised experts by revealing that far from requiring vast forests, the grey wolf has started to adapt to the modern environment.”

“Foreign visitors are frequently surprised to find that the famous Black Forest is not the sublime sylvan wilderness they imagined it to be. How can it be, they ask, that the supposedly forest-minded Germans do not see the glaring contradiction in celebrating the Black Forest as their quintessential Nature when in fact it is an enormous, rigidly patterned spruce plantation dissected by well-maintained gravel roads and trails on which throngs of hikers stroll from the car park to the nearest inn and back? The answer is that Germans resolve this cognitive dissonance by blending two conceptualizations of the forest, one emphasizing its vestigial wildness, the other its evident orderliness.”

“The golden eagle is a large raptor typical of open or lightly wooded landscapes. In Europe, it is classified as rare... Conservation through site-protection has recently been enhanced by the creation in 1998 of the ‘Network of Alpine Protected Areas’ within the ‘Alpine Convention’, signed by all eight nations with Alpine mountains. The aim of the Network is to enhance biodiversity conservation and sustainable development... and golden eagle population turnover, dispersal, and breeding and foraging habitat selection, both in the wintering and breeding season.

“The much-touted ‘energy transition’ [Energiewende] toward renewables is based to a great extent on corporatist alliances. Eco-friendly taxation drew support from environmental NGOs and trade unions alike. Thermal insulation of buildings received a boost when the government joined forces with the construction industry. Even the fact that Germany nowaday produces some 20 percent of its electricity from renewable resources has as much to do with civic initiatives as with government policies.”

“The [German Democratic Republic] GDR’s first eco-novel, Flugasche [Fly Ash], was published by a West German publishing house in 1981. Written by Monika Maron, the book talked about the dismal situation in the industrial town of Bitterfield, which Maron dubbed ‘the dirtiest town in Europe.’ On June 25, 1988, East German environmental activists tapes video footage on the disastrous conditions in the region... For the people in the Federal Republic, the town became the synonym of Socialist environmental devastation, perhaps even more so than for East Germans.”

“Probably the most momentous failure [in conservation policy] concerned thespeed limit. The federal government reacted to the 1973 oil crisis with emergencymeasures that included a general speed limit of 100 km/h on the autobahns and80 km/h on county roads... In this way unrestricted driving on German autobahnsbecame a national myth, and the price has been terrible accidents, horrendousemissions, and a trend towards heavy sedans that made high speed possible in thefirst place.”

“Officially opened in 1970 as the ‘crowning point’ of European Conservation Year (ECY) in the Federal Republic, the park’s historic significance was all but lost in news coverage that spotlighted the most obvious concession to tourism, the reintroduction of native and nonnative wildlife. Nonetheless, erecting a national monument in a remote corner of the country where traditional economic use was phased out almost entirely, marked a small victory for conservationists who had preached for years about restraint, respect for nature, and responsibility toward future generations.”

“On December 7, 1969, he [Federal Minister of the Interior, Hans-Dietrich Genscher] decided on ‘Division U,’ and the letter stood for a previously unknown term:Umweltschutz. It was the literal translation of the English term ‘environmentalprotection’... The division U pursued an ambitious reform program, one that hadno precedent in German environmental policy. A Law against Airplane Noise anda Leaded Gasoline Act were passed as early as 1971, followed by the Trash Removal Law and the DDT Law (both 1972), the Federal Air Quality Act (1974), theFederal Forest Law (1975), and the Federal Nature Protection Act (1976).”

“The introduction of industrial farming in 1967 — about a decade after the [Federal Republic of Germany] FRG — created more problems. Conservationists in both Germanys reported a loss of species and declining soil fertility because of land consolidation, hedge removal, draining wetlands, and the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. But the [German Democratic Republic] GDR’s practice of separating crop production from animal husbandry caused added harm. Toxic runoff containing nitrates from heavily fertilized plant monocultures and concentrated waste from farms with thousands of animals jeopardized already limited supplies of ground and surface water.”