AfD on the environment and animal welfare

The AfD wants to allow no new wind turbines in state-owned forest and to encourage private and municipal forest owners to refrain voluntarily. Operators would also have to financially guarantee the complete removal of old turbines, including foundations.

The AfD wants no new wind turbines in the state's forest. Other forest owners should give them up by choice. Old turbines should be removed fully. The operators should pay for this, not taxpayers.

According to the platform, at least 530 hectares of forest had been cleared in the state for 527 turbines by the end of 2024. It cites compacted and sealed soil, concrete foundations left in the ground, and dangers to bats and birds. Incentives to refrain are planned for municipal and private forest. For dismantling, security deposits would be adjusted continuously and topped up from operators' profits to cover rising costs. This is meant to keep municipalities from paying if an operator goes bankrupt.

The AfD calls for active wolf management with population control to protect grazing animals. The yearly increase is to be hunted and problem wolves killed. The party considers the lowered protection status and the wolf's inclusion in state hunting law insufficient.

Wolves kill sheep and other animals in pastures. The AfD wants hunters to be allowed to shoot wolves. The number of wolves should stop growing. Wolves that cause problems should be killed.

The program regards herd protection measures as costly and inadequate. It demands further legal changes so that wolves can be removed in a targeted and legally secure way. Police and hunters are to be allowed to kill wolves injured in traffic accidents. In the AfD's view, the wolf only has a place where no conflicts with grazing and residents are to be expected.

The AfD wants to give animal shelters considerably more state money so that intake freezes end. Municipalities are to get state help in adopting cat protection ordinances, with uniform rules across the state. Online trade in pets and exotic animals is also to be regulated.

Animal shelters do not have enough money. The AfD wants to give them much more state money. Towns should get help with rules for cats. Selling animals on the internet should have stricter rules.

The program describes shelters as too few, underfunded and in poor structural condition; more money is also meant to relieve volunteers and the cities and districts responsible for stray animals. Cat protection ordinances require owners to have outdoor cats neutered, marked and registered to curb uncontrolled breeding. In online trade, breeding and rearing conditions of pets are to be traceable. For exotic animals, the CITES certificate from the species protection authority is to be required. The AfD cites impulse purchases and unclear origins of the animals as reasons.

The AfD wants research to do without animal testing in the long run and will fund alternative methods to that end. Where animal tests are used for products, consumers should be able to see this. The state is to monitor animal experiments more closely.

Animals suffer in animal tests. The AfD wants research to manage without animal tests one day. It wants to fund other methods. Buyers should learn whether a product was tested on animals.

The program names 3D cell cultures and computer-based models as alternatives worth funding. It considers animal testing hard to justify ethically but acknowledges its importance for medical research. Approval and oversight are the responsibility of the federal states. The AfD expects more animal-friendly methods to deliver more meaningful results in the future.

The AfD wants to fund humane husbandry systems for farm animals, including year-round grazing. It favors regional slaughter, including slaughter on pasture, and wants to stop long transports of live animals. Maximum transport times are to be set by law.

Farm animals should have more space and time outdoors. The AfD wants to support this kind of farming. Animals should be slaughtered close by. Long trips with live animals should stop. A law should set the longest travel time allowed.

According to the program, humane husbandry means more space, outdoor access, activity and places to retreat. Breeding of endangered livestock breeds such as Rätisches Grauvieh is also to be supported. The AfD says regional slaughter reduces animals' stress, improves meat quality and strengthens regional value chains. Besides maximum times, rules on water supply during transport are to be written into law.

The AfD wants to undo the revision of the state hunting law and redraft it together with hunters. Hunters are to hunt on their own responsibility without state culling requirements. The municipal hunting tax is also to go, with the state compensating for lost revenue.

The state has a new hunting law. The AfD wants to take this law back. It wants to write a different law together with hunters. Hunters should decide for themselves how they hunt. The hunting tax should be dropped.

The program criticizes that the new law obliges hunters in some areas to shoot entire game populations under the principle of forest before game. The AfD wants to return to traditional hunting ethics and to stewardship of a diverse, healthy game population. Areas kept free of red deer are to be lifted, the wolf added as a huntable species with open and closed seasons, and game protection restored with its earlier powers. The program says the hunting tax brings municipalities just under four million euros a year; the law on municipal levies is to be amended accordingly.

The AfD wants to prioritize flood protection. It plans early warning systems, stormwater retention basins, infiltration areas in new housing developments and the restoration of rivers and streams to a natural state.

The AfD wants to protect the state better against floods. There should be new warning systems. Basins should hold back rainwater. In new housing areas, water should be able to soak into the ground. Rivers and streams should become more natural again.

The platform attributes more severe flood damage to dense construction and sealed surfaces. New developments are to get enough infiltration areas under the "sponge city" concept, which the AfD says also brings more green space and trees. Stormwater retention basins are to be built, with special support in the Ahrweiler district. Warning and simulation systems are meant to allow timely evacuations and prevent deaths.

The AfD wants to replant forest areas left bare by storms and pests with climate-adapted mixed woodland. It also rejects what it sees as excessive certification requirements for forestry operations.

Storms and pests have destroyed many forests. The AfD wants to plant new trees there. These should be mixed forests that suit the climate. Forestry businesses should have to provide fewer certificates.

The platform accuses the state government of neglecting reforestation for two decades and of destroying woodland with wind turbines. It wants to support the use of wild seedlings, meaning young trees that have grown naturally in the forest. Fast-growing conifers, which the AfD says do not suit the region, should no longer be planted. In the party's view, certification only adds work without improving yield, timber quality or revenue.

The AfD wants to support beekeepers with subsidies and make fighting the Asian hornet a state responsibility. Beyond that, introduced plant and animal species are to be pushed back in order to protect native ones.

The AfD wants to give money to beekeepers. The state should fight the Asian hornet because it harms bees. Other foreign plants and animals should also be pushed back. This is how the AfD wants to protect native species.

Subsidies would be available for new bee colonies and for losses caused by the Asian hornet; training for bee health experts would also be funded. The AfD demands compliance with the honey regulation and opposes imported honey without proof of origin. It points out that German honey covers only 30 percent of demand. Invasive plants such as giant hogweed are to be contained through grazing by sheep or goats, for example, and invasive animals such as the Egyptian goose or raccoon dog through hunting.