AfD on the environment and animal welfare

The AfD commits to keeping livestock farming in Germany and wants to promote animal-appropriate housing systems. Animal transports are to last no more than six hours, and regional slaughterhouses are to be kept. Slaughter according to religious rites is to be allowed only with sufficient stunning.

The AfD wants to protect animals better. Animals should spend six hours at most in a transport. Local slaughterhouses should stay. Some religions have special rules for slaughter. This should only be allowed if the animal is stunned first.

State rules on livestock should not cause more farms to close. Combined housing with summer grazing, common mainly in southern Germany, should not be treated worse than loose-housing barns. Besides regional slaughterhouses, the AfD wants to allow mobile slaughter by shooting animals on the pasture. Breeding animals may still be transported alive under veterinary control and by certified companies. In ritual slaughter the stunning must last through the whole process, and the German slaughter standard is to apply to imported goods as well.

The AfD wants to limit the wolf population by number and area and to designate wolf-free zones. It regards hunting as a form of nature conservation and holds to the principle of "forest with game." It also wants stronger action against introduced species.

The AfD wants to limit the number of wolves. Some areas should have no wolves at all. The party supports hunting. Foreign animals and plants should spread less.

The platform names Sweden and Norway as models for limiting wolves and says they should be treated as a single European population. Game populations that cause problems are to be monitored regionally and adjusted quickly. The AfD rejects the "forest before game" approach because, in its view, it treats wild animals as pests and conflicts with animal welfare. Against invasive species, the platform relies on prevention and early detection. Being invasive is to become a legal ground for removing a species.

The AfD wants forests to be managed professionally and sustainably and wants to promote wood as a building material and energy source. It rejects setting aside more forest land and clearing forest for wind turbines. Documentation requirements in forestry are to be reduced.

The AfD wants experts to care for and use the forest. Wood should be promoted for building and for heating. No more forest land should be taken out of use. No forest should be cut down for wind turbines.

According to the platform, preserving forests requires professional use that balances economics, ecology, and recreation. The AfD commits to sustainable forest conversion and wants to cut paperwork in documentation. It rejects clearing forest for wind power in order to protect wild species and preserve nature for future generations. It wants an end to what it describes as EU-sponsored lobbying by environmental groups on behalf of the wind industry.

The AfD wants water, waterworks, and pipelines to remain public property and rejects privatizing or liberalizing the water market. Germany and its federal states, rather than the EU, should be responsible for protecting bodies of water.

The AfD wants water to belong to the state and the towns. Private companies should not be able to buy the waterworks. Germany and its states should set the rules for protecting rivers and lakes, not the EU. There should be no new charges for taking water.

Supply is to be provided regionally by municipalities and special-purpose associations. The AfD wants to prevent a general privatization that it says EU directives encourage; private wells that landowners use for their own drinking water are not affected. The platform rejects additional taxes or charges on water extraction. In the AfD's view, the federal and state governments, working with municipalities and farmers, can protect water more effectively than the EU.

The AfD wants to review the rules on genetic engineering and create what it sees as a more pragmatic legal framework. It rejects blanket bans on substances, such as the PFAS group of chemicals, and instead calls for a risk assessment of each individual substance.

The AfD wants looser rules for genetic engineering. It wants to review the German law on it. The party also opposes bans on whole groups of substances. Experts should check each substance on its own.

The platform notes that genetically engineered products are already common in food, cosmetics and clothing. As obstacles it names the Gentechnikgesetz (Genetic Engineering Act), with its requirements for cultivation and research, and EU Regulation 1829/2003 on genetically modified organisms in food. In medical technology, citizens should be able to make a voluntary and informed choice. On chemicals, the AfD opposes bans like the one on drinking straws and an EU-level proposal to ban Teflon and PFAS. It says recycling prevails when it pays off economically, and research on it could take place in state institutes together with industry.