CDU on the environment and animal welfare

The CDU wants lasting funding for preserving, restructuring and rebuilding damaged forests under all types of ownership. Forest owners are to be paid for the carbon their forests store, for instance through a low-bureaucracy forest bonus.

Many forests in Hesse are sick. The CDU wants to save and rebuild them. There should be lasting money for this. Forest owners should also get money because their forest stores CO2.

The expanded funding from the 12-point plan is to become permanent. The state forestry agency Hessen-Forst is to be adequately equipped for the state forest and recruit skilled staff; private and municipal owners get simple aid for restructuring and replanting. New climate-adapted tree species are to be permitted and eligible for funding. At the federal level, the CDU wants a practical forest bonus without unrelated conditions. The guiding idea is a forest serving several uses at once, with a secured right of access and visitor guidance.

The CDU rejects taking additional forest land out of management and wants no new requirements for forestry. In its view, sustainable forestry already protects biodiversity effectively, while set-asides harm climate protection and the wood supply.

Some forests are no longer used. Nobody cuts trees there. The CDU does not want more such areas. It says: The managed forest already protects animals and plants well. And people need the wood.

The platform sees no need for further restrictions on forest management. The CDU rejects measures that strengthen a single function of the forest at the expense of others. Special environmental services are instead to be delivered through contract-based conservation and voluntary agreements.

The CDU wants to use more wood from local forests and secure supplies for Hesse's sawmills and wood industry. Forest owners are to be relieved of some costs of keeping roads safe from tree hazards.

The CDU wants to use more wood from Hesse's forests. Sawmills should get enough wood. Forest owners must protect roads from falling trees. They should pay less for this.

The burden of road safety duties is to be shared more fairly between owners and those responsible for roads; as a first step, fees for necessary road closures would be dropped, and a funding offer added. The reorganization of wood marketing is to be completed along decentralized lines. Firewood sales to the public, such as wood lots or logging residue, are to stay and grow. Municipal and private forest owners are to keep receiving a service offer that complies with antitrust law.

The CDU affirms hunting as a cultural asset and wants to extend hunting seasons for several species, while the hunting law keeps its basic principles. Hunters and anglers are to get more self-responsibility and less red tape.

The CDU thinks hunting is important. Hunters should be allowed to hunt some animals for longer. They should be allowed to hunt wild boar all year. Hunters and anglers should manage many things themselves.

Closed seasons for foxes and raccoons are to end in order to protect ground-nesting and song birds, with parent animals still protected; night-vision and night-aiming devices will be allowed for wild boar. Seasons for geese, carrion crows and magpies will be extended, and beavers and cormorants are to become huntable. Training and exams stay with the hunting community, and people should be able to earn a hunting license during educational leave. The CDU wants to keep the hunting district system and local game management groups, prevent hunting-free zones where possible and do more for red deer. On fishing, it will examine handing the fishing exam to the associations and supports commercial fishing and pond farming.

The CDU wants to include the wolf in Hesse's hunting law and actively manage its population as soon as federal law allows. It no longer regards the wolf as an endangered species in Germany and wants better protection for people and grazing animals.

Wolves live in Germany again. The CDU says: The wolf is no longer at risk. Hunters should be allowed to hunt wolves once federal law permits it. This way the CDU wants to protect people and grazing animals.

The federal government is to ask the EU to list the wolf in Annex V of the Habitats Directive, a weaker protection category in European conservation law. Until then, the CDU wants to use the existing narrow options to remove individual problem animals. Preventive protection measures and support for keeping grazing livestock are to be stepped up.

The CDU wants to secure affordable, clean drinking water even as the climate changes, expanding pipeline networks and water sourcing to do so. It rejects a general "Wassercent," a levy on water extraction.

Everyone in Hesse should have clean and affordable drinking water. The CDU wants to renew the water pipes. It does not want a new charge on water. Rivers and streams should become more natural again.

Besides the cross-regional network, small local networks in rural areas and water sourcing in cities are to be strengthened. Investments are to be financed through a balance between rural areas that supply water and urban areas that use it, and recognized by antitrust authorities. The platform supports water retention under the "sponge city" concept with unsealing and greening, as well as checks on dual-pipe systems in new developments. Funding for restoring rivers and streams stays high, taking small hydropower and mills into account. A water research center in Geisenheim and step-by-step upgrades of sewage treatment plants are also planned.

The CDU wants to keep supporting the mining company Kali+Salz as it becomes more environmentally compatible. Jobs and economic value are to be preserved until mining ends, while environmental standards are met.

Kali+Salz is a mining company in Hessen. The CDU wants to keep supporting it. The company should harm the environment less. The jobs should stay until mining ends.

The state is to take whatever steps are needed on its side. The program names storing wastewater underground and covering the waste heaps as pioneering projects. The CDU wants to advance both together with the company. The stated aim is for Kali+Salz to become the most modern and most environmentally compatible mining group in the world.

The CDU wants to keep reducing nitrate and phosphorus in water bodies, but on a polluter-pays basis. The "red zones" with stricter fertilizer rules are to be drawn more precisely, based on additional measuring points.

Water should contain less nitrate and phosphorus. In "red zones" there are strict rules for fertilizer. The CDU wants to draw these zones more exactly. For that, there should be more measuring points. Farmers who protect water should get exceptions.

The groundwater monitoring network is to be expanded so that the zones can be differentiated more finely. The CDU backs exemptions for farmers who work in a way that is especially gentle on water. Advice and investment funding are meant to help farms meet the rules, for example for fertilizer storage and spreading equipment. Other pollution sources, especially sewage treatment plants, are to be looked at as well. The CDU wants to continue the soil protection strategy.

The CDU rejects blanket land set-asides of the kind it says are being considered at EU level. Conservation is instead to work through voluntary contracts with owners and land users, with contract-based conservation taking priority.

The CDU does not want to take land out of use across the board. It says the EU is discussing such ideas. Nature protection should be voluntary. The state signs contracts with farmers and owners for this. Insects should also get more places to live.

In the program's view, Hessen already has enough unused refuges on state-owned land, and further intervention on private land is unnecessary. Funding for contract-based conservation is to stay high, especially in FFH (Habitats Directive) areas. Up to 15 percent of open land in each natural region is to be made available for a habitat network. The CDU wants to strengthen eco-point trading and compensation payments; those payments should not be used to buy up productive farmland or forest. It also plans more insect habitats, such as flower strips and "insect highways" along roads and rail lines. Major projects such as Kellerwald-Edersee National Park and the Rhön Biosphere Reserve keep their support, and a research center for international species protection is to be set up in Frankfurt.

The CDU aims for material cycles that are as closed as possible and wants to advance the recyclables bin and the Dual System (Germany's packaging recycling scheme). At the same time, new landfill capacity is to be created and less food and plastic should end up as waste.

The CDU wants more waste to be recycled. For this, there should be a bin for recyclable materials. There should be more landfill space for construction waste. People should throw away less food and plastic.

The CDU wants to tackle the shortage of landfill space, especially for construction waste, together with potential operators and to use waste planning powers if needed. Excavated soil is to be reusable nearby with less red tape, which is also meant to lower building costs. The "Sauberhaftes Hessen" campaign is to grow and focus more on plastic waste. A new initiative and arrangements with food retailers are meant to reduce food waste, including after the best-before date has passed. Repair cafés and similar private initiatives will continue to receive support.

The CDU wants to improve conditions at animal shelters with more money for the Stiftung Hessischer Tierschutz (Hessian animal welfare foundation) and a special program. For farm animals, it relies on the roundtable with farmers and associations, without rules that apply only in Hessen.

The CDU wants to help animal shelters. There will be more money for building work. Farm animals should be treated better. The CDU talks about this with farmers and associations. There should be fewer animal experiments.

Under the program, municipalities remain responsible for funding the shelters. The roundtable on farm animal husbandry is to continue its work without harming the competitiveness of Hessian livestock farmers. For animal testing, the "3R principle" of replacing, reducing, and refining continues to apply, supported by the university chairs created for it. The CDU promotes voluntary chipping and registration of dogs and cats. Municipalities are to get help with neutering feral cats.

The CDU rejects giving animal welfare organizations their own right to sue. It expects no gain for animal welfare from it, but more strain on courts and longer permitting procedures. Break-ins at livestock barns are to be punished as a crime.

Animal welfare groups should not be able to go to court themselves. The CDU says this does not help animals. It only makes procedures longer. People who break into a barn should be punished.

The program cites a looming burden on the courts and delays in permitting as its reasons. The CDU also backs the federal government's plan to prosecute break-ins at livestock barns effectively as a criminal offense.