CDU on the environment and animal welfare

The CDU wants every person who fishes to have to prove competence as a rule. Exemptions from the exam requirement, such as the tourist fishing license, are to apply only in objectively justified cases. The party cites species protection and animal welfare as the reason.

People who fish should know about fish. They should show this with a test. Today tourists can often fish without a test. The CDU wants to allow such exceptions only rarely.

According to the program, people who kill vertebrates should be competent, as exams ensure for hunting and falconry. At present, untrained people can catch and kill fish without knowing the species and their protection status or having learned proper stunning. The CDU wants uniform standards for the type and scope of angling training. At the same time it wants to promote angling as a pillar of tourism.

The CDU commits to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda and wants to keep measuring state policy against them. It intends to carry out the state's biodiversity strategy, further develop education for sustainable development, and support the EU Green Deal.

The United Nations has 17 goals for a sustainable world. The CDU wants its policy to follow them. It wants to protect the variety of animals and plants. People should learn more about living sustainably.

Government projects are to continue being checked against sustainability indicators, and progress toward the goals is to be evaluated. The state strategy on education for sustainable development (BNE) is to be reviewed and developed further, with adult education centers involved. Implementation of the biodiversity strategy is announced for the coming legislative term. The platform calls the EU Green Deal an essential step and pledges active support. Ecology, the economy, and social concerns are to be given equal weight.

The CDU wants to implement the state's biodiversity strategy and set aside wilderness areas on 1.4 percent of the state's land by 2030. A scientific advisory board is to advise the state government on environmental policy so that, in the party's view, decisions rest on research and impact assessments.

The CDU wants to protect animals and plants better. By 2030 there should be more wilderness areas. Nature is left alone there. Experts from research should advise the government on protecting the environment.

The board is to take biological, social, health and economic aspects into account. In pilot regions, the CDU wants to find out which local measures yield the greatest species diversity and involve residents. A citizens' strategy is to show what individuals can contribute, for example with insect-friendly plants. The Red List should better reflect current developments; the platform cites barnacle and greylag geese as examples of recovered populations. Also planned are doubling conservation advice for farmers, an insect protection plan for forests and insect monitoring by an independent institute.

The CDU wants conservation violations, illegal logging and illegal dumping to be prosecuted more vigorously and punished more heavily. It justifies this with a visible rise in such offenses and the damage they do to nature.

Some people cut down trees illegally or dump trash in nature. The CDU wants to punish this more harshly. The police should be better able to pursue such acts.

Enforcement is to be tightened through both administrative fines and criminal law. The CDU wants to continue an initiative at the federal level for higher fines. The police are to be better equipped for environmental protection tasks.

The CDU wants new land take in the state to fall to no more than 1.3 hectares per day by 2030 and to reduce soil sealing. At the same time, business siting and growth should remain possible, for example by reusing old sites.

The CDU wants less new land to be built on. By 2030 it should be at most 1.3 hectares a day. Old factories and barracks should be put to new use. Companies should still be able to set up shop.

The target is to be met by filling gaps between buildings, developing within existing town limits, adapted construction and recycling unused land. To offset new demand from growing towns, abandoned built-up sites are to be restored to nature or unsealed. Municipalities will get support to reuse vacant lots, old industrial plants and barracks. Land take is to be measured more precisely; ground-mounted solar, gardens, sports grounds and green spaces should not count against the statistics. The CDU wants to provide the land needed for renewable energy and battery storage.

The CDU wants products to be reused and recycled more, arguing that this avoids waste and CO2 emissions. Recycled plastic is to become more competitive, waste should only go to countries that can process it properly, and trash bins should get uniform colors nationwide.

The CDU wants less trash and more recycling. Recycling means making new things from old ones. Trash bins should have the same colors all over Germany. Trash should only go to countries that can process it well.

Hidden subsidies for newly produced plastic are to end and legal barriers to recycled plastic are to come down. Every package should show in an easy-to-understand way how to dispose of it, and every bin should state what goes in it. The CDU favors a voluntary ecological footprint label for products and more recycled building materials. Bulky waste disposal should involve less red tape and work across county lines. The Supply Chain Act (Lieferkettengesetz) is to be implemented sustainably and pragmatically; the party supports the EU's plan for a new circular economy concept under the Green Deal.

The CDU wants to draw up a water strategy for the state that also takes account of climate change effects such as heavy rain and drought. Those who pollute water are to be held more accountable. The aim is clean drinking water and better quality in seas, lakes and rivers.

The CDU wants to make a plan for water in the state. Drinking water should stay clean. Anyone who pollutes water should take responsibility for it. The plan should also consider heavy rain and dry periods.

The polluter-pays principle is to be strengthened so that contamination is avoided at the source. The strategy is also meant to address how rainwater can be put to better use. Sewage plants are to receive support for adding a fourth treatment stage, which filters out things like drug residues and microplastics. Modern wastewater systems are planned mainly for cities. The CDU also wants to complete and implement the Baltic Sea Coast Strategy 2100, continue the floodplain program, and make waterways easier for migrating species to pass through.

The CDU wants to step up efforts on old munitions lying in the sea, because they release toxins that endanger marine life. It sees recovery as a task shared by the federal government and all the states.

Old munitions lie in the sea. Poison leaks from them into the water. The CDU wants the munitions taken out of the sea. The federal government and the states should do this together.

New technical methods are to be used for the recovery. Research institutes and specialized companies from Schleswig-Holstein are to be closely involved. This is meant to keep the risk of detonations for people and the environment as low as possible. The CDU wants to keep supporting research in this field.

The CDU wants to keep funding animal shelters and make neutering of free-roaming stray cats standard practice. It also wants to support projects that prevent the compulsive collecting of pets.

The CDU wants to keep giving money to animal shelters. Cats without owners should be neutered. Some people compulsively keep far too many animals. The CDU wants to support projects that prevent this.

The platform stresses that shelters often rely on volunteers and that their funding was improved during the last legislative term. On so-called animal hoarding, the CDU relies on preventive projects. Authorities and the people around those affected, such as neighbors and relatives, are to become more alert and report cases.

The CDU wants to put an end to the illegal trade in animals. To do so, the platform calls for more inspections, tougher penalties and effective prosecution.

The CDU wants to stop the illegal trade in animals. There should be more inspections. Illegal traders should be punished more harshly. Online trade in animals should also have stricter rules.

Beyond action within the state, the CDU wants to push for further rules at the federal and EU level. There, online trade in pets and wild animals is to be regulated more tightly. Violations of these rules are to be penalized.

The CDU wants to increase forest cover in Schleswig-Holstein to more than twelve percent of the state's area and continue the reforestation programs. The aim is to create species-rich climate forests that withstand extreme weather better. It also wants to examine whether the rule requiring people to stay on forest paths should be reinstated.

The CDU wants more forest in the state. More than twelve percent of the land should be forest. The new forests should have many kinds of trees. That helps them cope with heat and storms. The CDU will also check whether people must stay on paths in the forest.

Funding programs for afforestation are to be continued, and more land is to be made available for first-time planting. Together with the state forestry agency and the Northwest German Forest Research Institute, tree species that can cope with climate change are to be identified. The state forests are to receive enough money to advance the conversion of state-owned woodland and biological climate protection in forests and forest bogs. Wildfire protection is to get more attention. The path rule is to be evaluated because, in the platform's view, leaving the paths disturbs animals and damages plants.

The CDU wants to place the wolf under hunting law so that quick action is possible in accidents and when people or livestock are in danger. It also wants to create the legal basis for wolf-free zones, especially along coasts and dikes.

The CDU wants wolves to fall under hunting law. Then hunters can help quickly when there is danger. Along coasts and dikes, areas without wolves should be possible. This is how the CDU wants to protect sheep and other grazing animals.

The platform justifies the demand by saying that wolves are spreading and attacking livestock more often. The CDU sees pasture farming and sheep herding on the dikes as particularly at risk. Where livestock is threatened, protecting it should be possible.

The CDU wants to actively manage goose populations in the state, including through hunting. Farmers are to be able to insure themselves against feeding damage, with the state covering losses the insurance does not pay.

There are many geese in the state. They eat fields bare. The CDU wants hunters to be allowed to shoot geese. Farmers should be able to insure their fields against goose damage. The state pays the rest of the damage.

Procedures for controlled culling and for using the animals are to be simplified, and an addition to the closed-season regulation will be examined. The CDU considers the barnacle goose population to have developed well enough to be classed as favorable under European conservation law. Taking eggs from nests is to remain permitted. The insurance model follows the example of hail insurance; Schleswig-Holstein is to cover the gap between the payout and the actual damage.

The CDU sees hunting as active nature conservation and wants to keep the statewide hunting district system as well as hunting in protected areas. Hunting dogs are to be exempt from dog tax and shooting ranges secured. A wildlife corridor plan is to reconnect fragmented habitats.

The CDU says hunting protects nature. Hunters should also be allowed to hunt in protected areas. No one should pay dog tax for hunting dogs. Shooting ranges should stay. Wild animals should get crossings over roads.

Non-native species that can displace native wildlife are to remain huntable; the CDU will examine adding the rhea and the golden jackal to hunting law. Trapping, den hunting and falconry are to remain in place for species and coastal protection. The platform justifies the tax exemption for certified hunting dogs by saying their training serves the public good, for example after wildlife collisions. Shooting ranges are to get grandfathered status and permanent funding because an expected Europe-wide lead ban would require costly upgrades. The wildlife corridor plan includes wildlife crossings. Associations from hunting, conservation, farming, and water and soil management are to cooperate more closely on biodiversity.

The CDU wants less food to end up in the trash, especially in private households. It relies on consumer education, talks with supermarkets and, following the French example, other ways of passing on food that is still edible.

People in Germany throw away a lot of food. The CDU wants to change that. It wants to talk with supermarkets about it. Good food should be passed on instead of thrown away. People should learn to waste less.

The platform cites almost twelve million tons of discarded food per year in Germany; more than half of the avoidable share is attributed to private households. At the federal level, the CDU wants to strengthen alternative ways of handing over food that can still be used, taking France as a model. Awareness programs are to continue, and educational offerings for consumers are to be expanded.