CDU on the environment and animal welfare

The CDU wants to keep converting Thuringia's forests into mixed forests with many tree species and to replant damaged areas. Private and municipal forest owners are to receive funding and advice. The platform argues that healthy forests bind large amounts of CO₂.

Many forests in Thuringia are sick. The CDU wants to turn them into mixed forests. Many kinds of trees grow there. People who own forest should get money and advice. One tree should be planted for every newborn child.

Besides replanting after bark beetle damage and drought, additional forest is to be planted; the CDU rejects wind turbines in place of trees. The reserves of ThüringenForst, the state forestry agency, are to be earmarked as a "Future Reserve Forest" to fund the conversion over the long term. Forest owners are to receive lasting payments for the ecosystem services of their forests, with silvicultural goals defined jointly. The nearly 180,000 small forest owners are to be advised and supported so that private woodland is used more actively. A tree sponsorship program called "Sei das grüne Herz!" would plant a tree for every child born in Thuringia. The recreational value of forests is to be kept, for example through parking areas planned together with owners.

The CDU rejects taking more managed forests out of use and turning them into wilderness areas. In the platform's view, this does not help Thuringia's forests. Areas already set aside are to be reviewed to see whether they can be used again.

Some forests are no longer managed. Nobody may harvest wood there. This is called a set-aside. The CDU wants no more set-asides. It wants to check whether set-aside forests can be used again.

The platform rules out new set-asides of commercial forest. For existing set-aside areas, the CDU announces a review of whether they can be redesignated if needed. At the same time, it wants a balanced ratio of used and protected land, supports refuges and habitat networks, and plans adequate funding for nature parks and biosphere reserves.

The CDU wants to create a legal basis for limiting the number of wolves in Thuringia. At the federal level it wants interventions to be allowed immediately, without a specific cause and without prior damage. Beavers are also to be regulated more closely.

The CDU wants to keep the number of wolves small. There should be new rules for this. Hunters should be allowed to drive away or shoot wolves. This should be allowed even without earlier damage. The number of beavers should also be managed better.

At the state level, the legal conditions for regulating wolf populations are to be created. At the federal level, the CDU wants active population management to be permitted with immediate effect, without a triggering incident and regardless of damage. Deterrence and shooting are to be clearly regulated, and populations monitored and kept low. The platform also announces better regulation of beavers.

The CDU wants to leave Thuringia's hunting law unchanged and treat forest and game as a unit. Anglers, commercial fishers and pond farmers are to receive support. The platform presents hunting and fishing as contributions to nature and species protection.

The CDU does not want to change the hunting law in Thuringia. It thinks the law works well. For the CDU, forest and wild animals belong together. Anglers and fishers should get help.

The "Wald UND Wild" (forest AND game) strategy is to continue and balance forest protection, owners' economic interests and responsibility for game. Where game populations are locally too dense, the platform considers reducing them appropriate so that a stable forest can develop. For anglers, the CDU wants to preserve the variety of angling and support education and youth work. For commercial fishers it relies on dialogue and as much freedom and self-administration as possible; pond farming is also to be supported.

The CDU wants to keep refuges for animals and plants, especially endangered species. Protected areas are not to be reduced for other purposes such as wind power. Animal shelters are to receive more funding.

The CDU wants to keep protected areas for animals and plants. No wind turbines should be built there. Insects should get more places to live. Animal shelters should get more money.

The platform rejects restricting existing protected areas, for instance for wind energy. Digital methods and modern technology are to help record species and fine-tune protection plans. In compensation measures under nature conservation law, the focus is to be on new habitats for insects. Large conservation projects, Hainich National Park, the Rhön and Thuringian Forest biosphere reserves and the nature parks are to keep receiving support, and more EU funds are to be obtained. Animal shelters are to get more funding in light of rising costs and investment needs, and volunteers there more recognition.

The CDU wants to guarantee a reliable water supply everywhere in the state and connect more households to wastewater systems. Rivers and streams are to get more room, and cities are to be supported in adapting to heat. Less new land is to be sealed.

The CDU wants safe water for every place in Thuringia. More homes should be connected to sewers. Rivers should get more space. Cities should get help against heat. Less ground should be built over.

The program to connect the so-called well villages to the water supply is to be completed; for wastewater, the share of connected private households is to rise well above 90 percent. Dikes that protect neither buildings nor infrastructure are to be removed or relocated, along with an action plan for stream and river floodplains backed by funding. Heat protection is to become a criterion in urban development funding, and the CDU also supports water retention and storage in cities. It wants to cut land consumption by reusing sealed areas multiple times and redeveloping vacant sites.

The CDU wants to strengthen recycling and reuse and turn waste into part of closed material loops. It also aims for a cycle for CO₂: the gas is to be captured, used as a raw material or stored permanently. Domestic raw materials are to be extracted in a way compatible with nature.

The CDU wants less waste and more reuse. It wants to support repair cafés. People fix broken things there. CO₂ should be captured and then used or stored. Old mining sites should become nature again.

Repair cafés, recycling houses and projects to reuse building materials are to be promoted. Wind turbines and solar installations are also to be recycled more intensively to recover heavy metals and rare earths. The CDU backs projects that produce fuel from CO₂ filtered out of the air and wants such plants located in Thuringia. Former extraction sites are to be restored close to nature, active deposits mined in a nature-compatible way, and reuse plans for former landfills supported.