CDU on the environment and animal welfare

The CDU wants to use new funding programs to bring more greenery into cities and make forests more resilient to climate change. It plans a 50-million-euro tree voucher program, environmental vouchers for local projects, and a tree premium for forest owners.

The CDU wants to plant more trees in cities and villages. There should be over one million new trees. Clubs should get 2,000 euros for environmental projects. Forest owners should get a bonus payment. Forests should cope better with the changing climate.

The environmental vouchers of 2,000 euros per project are aimed at associations and groups that set up things like tiny forests or insect hotels. There are also to be incentives for green roofs, facades and front yards as well as public green spaces, in order to reduce urban heat. The tree premium for forest owners is to be based on CO2 storage per hectare. Tree-lined avenues are to be protected, restored and extended, the state's forestry and reforestation plans updated, and forest paths repaired once damaged timber has been removed. The CDU also wants to draw up a strategy against invasive species.

The CDU wants to make active wolf management possible in Germany and adjust the wolf's protection status to reflect how widespread the animal actually is. It justifies this with the fast-growing wolf population and the aim of securing the future of grazing livestock.

There are more and more wolves. The CDU wants to be allowed to actively control wolf numbers. The wolf should be less strictly protected. This is how the CDU wants to protect sheep and other animals on pastures.

The program points to other countries where such management already exists as a model. It is meant to secure both the future of grazing livestock farming and public acceptance of the wolf's return to North Rhine-Westphalia. The CDU wants to keep meeting its obligations under the EU Habitats Directive, which governs species protection. It describes hunters as important partners in nature conservation.

The CDU wants to regulate raw material extraction through a comprehensive strategy that combines environmental and land protection with planning certainty for industry. Recycling and the use of secondary raw materials are to receive more support.

The CDU wants better rules for digging up raw materials. Raw materials include sand and gravel. Less land should be used up. Companies should still be able to plan ahead. The CDU also wants to support more recycling.

Existing deposits are to be used as fully as possible so that less new land is taken up; monitoring of excavation sites is to be improved for this purpose. To avoid overburdening individual regions, demand for sand and gravel is to be reassessed on a scientific basis. New recycling and upcycling processes are to receive funding. The CDU wants to examine whether using secondary raw materials should count as an advantage in public procurement. Environmental education and out-of-school learning sites are also to keep receiving support.

The CDU wants to further strengthen hunters' own responsibility and cut bureaucracy. Hunting licenses are to be issued in a uniform and simpler way across the state. The platform describes hunting and fishing as contributions to native biodiversity.

The CDU wants to give hunters more responsibility of their own. There should be less paperwork. Getting a hunting license should be easier. It should also work online. The CDU also wants to support fishing.

Hunting licenses are to be issued in a uniform, simpler and digital way across the state, with attention to accessibility. Hunters are to help reforest damaged woodland and fight African swine fever, for which the CDU considers adjusted wild boar populations necessary. The party wants to review the cormorant regulation and make it more specific if needed. For aquaculture, the platform names environmentally sound production and high animal welfare standards as a mark of quality.

The CDU wants to further reduce land consumption. Ecological compensation for construction projects should, where possible, not lead to the loss of valuable farmland. Instead, unsealing built-up land, compensation payments and eco-accounts are to take priority.

Less land should be built over. Anyone who builds must give something back to nature. But good farmland should not be lost for that. The CDU prefers to remove concrete from land. Payments of money should also count as compensation.

When new construction has to be offset under nature conservation law, unsealing built-up land is to be given the highest ecological value. To that end, the CDU wants to keep adequately funding the AAV, the association for land recycling and remediation of contaminated sites. Compensation measures integrated into farm production are to be strengthened. At the federal level, the party seeks a rule that favors compensation payments and eco-accounts over offset areas; contract-based nature conservation is also to be used for this.