AfD on the environment and animal welfare

The AfD wants to protect plants and animals by building on the existing concepts for protected areas. Nature protection should be graduated, apply across the whole landscape and involve everyone affected. The party rejects large wilderness areas in state-owned forest.

The AfD wants to protect animals and plants in Brandenburg. To do so, it wants to build on today's protected areas. Nature protection should matter everywhere. The AfD does not want large wilderness areas in the state's forest.

The platform calls the protection of ecosystems and landscapes a core conservative concern and links it to preserving cultural heritage. Alongside landscape and nature reserves, contractual nature conservation, meaning voluntary agreements with land users, is to play a role. In forests the AfD relies on biotope protection, habitat trees, deadwood and promoted stands of old trees. It also wants layered, species-rich forest edges to be developed.

The AfD rejects rewetting peatlands on a large scale. Water levels on peat soils should instead be regulated through orderly water retention under the technical supervision of the counties. The platform warns that farmers could lose their land for good.

The AfD does not want to make large peatlands wet again. It says farmers would lose their meadows forever. The counties should control the water levels on peat soils.

According to the platform, a peatland cannot be restored simply by flooding it; this takes a process of many years that considers nutrients in the soil and land use. It says the peatland programs of the federal government, the state and environmental groups lack solid data on the effects of higher groundwater levels. Farmers who accept temporary payments for flooding grassland would permanently lose that land within a few years. Counties should not take part in what the platform calls green transformation experiments.

The AfD wants to stabilize the landscape's water balance and secure the drinking water supply. To that end, the state water law is to regulate water management comprehensively and uniformly for all of Brandenburg.

The AfD wants to secure water in Brandenburg. One law should set the same rules for the whole state. Drinking water should always come first.

The platform considers updating the guiding framework for municipal water management necessary but not sufficient. The state water law should establish the priority of drinking water supply. For times of water shortage, statewide rules should set the order in which user groups receive water. A framework should also allow the use of treated wastewater, at least in agriculture.

The AfD wants to largely stop the sealing of land and above all protect farmland from being built over. Unused military sites and industrial ruins are to be dismantled so that, on balance, more land is unsealed than sealed.

The AfD wants less ground to be built over. Farmland above all should stay open. The AfD wants to tear down old military sites and ruined factories. In the end there should be more open ground.

The platform counts land sealing among the biggest environmental problems in Germany and Brandenburg. It fears that expanding wind and solar plants will increase land loss further, and rejects that expansion. It also says sealing drives up purchase and lease prices for farmland. Dismantling unused sites is meant to achieve net unsealing overall.

The AfD wants to promote species-appropriate housing systems for farm animals and strictly enforce animal welfare laws. It calls for regular inspections, mandatory labeling of how animals are kept, and short trips to the slaughterhouse.

The AfD wants farm animals to live better. Farmers should get money for good housing. Official vets should check farms regularly. Products should show how the animals were kept.

The platform rejects procedures such as tail docking or beak trimming, which it says result only from price pressure by the food industry. The veterinary posts needed for uniform and fair inspections of farms are to be created and filled. A legally binding labeling system should go well beyond the minimum standard so customers can reward farms with good animal welfare. Animals should be transported over short distances to the nearest slaughterhouse. The platform says healthier herds need fewer antibiotics, which helps prevent multi-resistant germs.

The AfD wants forests to remain in commercial use, including for energy from wood, and is critical of plans to set aside thousands of hectares of state forest as wilderness. Small private forest owners are to get more support.

The AfD wants to keep using the forest. Leftover wood should also be used for heating. The AfD is critical of large wilderness areas in the state's forest. Owners of small forests should get more help.

According to the platform, wood may be used for energy as long as forest soils do not lose too many nutrients. The exemplary management of state forest required by the forest law should balance all forest functions, not just species protection. The ideal is mixed, richly structured stands of varying age without clear-cutting. For small private forests, the AfD wants to strengthen forest owner cooperatives, simplify funding applications and secure financing for forester services.

The AfD wants to create 30 additional project positions for ten years at the state forestry enterprise Landesbetrieb Forst Brandenburg, because more than half its staff will soon retire. More money should also go into forest conversion and high-quality seed and planting stock.

Many foresters in Brandenburg will retire soon. So the AfD wants to create 30 new jobs for ten years. The state should spend more on converting forests. There should also be more good seed for trees.

The project positions would focus on forest conversion and digitizing logistics between forestry and the timber industry, and would only temporarily add to the staffing set by the forestry reform. This is meant to pass the knowledge of experienced foresters on to the next generation. The AfD wants more seed orchards for the main tree species and supports cross-state trials with alternative species. The platform lists drought-tolerant species such as red oak, sweet chestnut, wild service tree, black pine and grand fir.

The AfD wants to actively regulate the wolf population and bring the wolf under hunting law to do so. It points to the sharply grown population and conflicts with grazing livestock. It rejects changes to hunting law that it regards as hostile to hunting.

There are more and more wolves in Brandenburg. The AfD wants hunters to be allowed to hunt wolves. It wants to protect sheep and other grazing animals this way. Otherwise, hunting law should stay as it is.

Management plans for the wolf are to be drawn up across hunting districts, based on wildlife biology and taking pack structure into account for animal welfare reasons. In the platform's view, protective measures for grazing animals and the shooting of individual problem wolves are not enough. More generally, the AfD seeks a balance between forestry and hunting. Quiet zones for game, feeding areas and targeted hunting on reforestation sites are meant to reduce damage by roe, red and fallow deer.