Grüne on the environment and animal welfare

The Greens want to cut raw material use in construction significantly and build a circular economy. The share of recycled building materials is to rise to at least 70 percent by 2035. The state is to lead the way with its own buildings.

Construction should use fewer new raw materials. Old building materials should be used again. By 2035, at least 70 percent of building materials should come from recycling. Buildings should be repaired, not torn down, where possible. The state should set an example with its own buildings.

Buildings are to be planned so that every material can be recycled or composted, and renovation is to take priority over demolition. A mandatory quota for recycled concrete is to apply to state buildings and to road and bike path construction, and the QNG sustainability seal is to become standard for state buildings. Tender rules are no longer to require natural aggregates. Resource efficiency is to become a criterion in all construction funding programs, and a marketplace for used building components modeled on Bremen is seen as a possible pilot. New landfills are to be kept to the necessary minimum, and dismantling old landfills is to be assessed.

The Greens want better protection for trees across the state. Further legal options are to be examined, and every municipality is to have a tree protection ordinance modeled on Hamburg's.

Trees are good for people and the environment. The Greens want to protect trees better. This applies to private and public land. Every town should have its own rules to protect trees.

The platform justifies the plan with the positive effects of trees on people and the environment. Additional legal avenues for protection on both private and public land are to be examined. The Hamburg model serves as the reference for municipal ordinances.

The Greens want the state to give priority to sustainable products when it buys goods. In the state administration's cafeterias, the share of organic and regional food would keep rising. The program points to the large influence public purchasing has on markets.

The state buys many things. The Greens want it to buy mainly sustainable products. State cafeterias should offer more organic food from the region. The state should not support unfair business.

The existing strategy for sustainable procurement would be continued and developed further. Cafeterias not owned by the state would also get help obtaining organic and regional products. Purchasing decisions would aim to avoid supporting unfair or destructive practices and further exploitation of disadvantaged countries.

The Greens want not just to slow species extinction but to reverse the trend. To do so, new protected areas would be created and existing ones enlarged and better managed. The state's biodiversity strategy would be continued and given resources.

Many animal and plant species are dying out. The Greens want to reverse this. There should be more and larger protected areas. Nature agencies should get more resources. Paid rangers should help in these areas.

Within five years, habitat protection for especially endangered species would improve markedly. Protected areas would form connected habitat corridors and serve UN and EU area targets. Conservation agencies would be better equipped, also to speed up planning without lowering review quality. Full-time rangers would support volunteer area stewards. Landscape protection areas would be reviewed and upgraded where warranted; the program stands by the state's wolf management.

The Greens want to prohibit pesticide use in protected areas and create pesticide-free buffer zones around them. Uses that conflict with the purpose of protection would be pushed back.

Pesticides are poisons against pests and weeds. The Greens want to ban them in protected areas. There should also be zones without pesticides around these areas. Other uses should not harm nature there.

The program names unsuitable farming, leisure activities and tourism among the conflicting uses. These conflicts would be reduced. The EU Habitats Directive would be implemented so that biodiversity in the state rises again.

The Greens want to rewet at least 8,000 hectares of drained peatland in the coming years and protect existing peatlands. The program describes peatlands as natural CO2 sinks, while farmed peat soils are said to be a major source of greenhouse gases.

Peatlands store a lot of CO2. Dry peatlands give off greenhouse gases instead. The Greens want to make at least 8,000 hectares of peatland wet again. They want to protect existing peatlands. Farmers and owners should get help with this.

The Stiftung Naturschutz (nature conservation foundation) would roll out rewetting widely; the peatland protection program and MoorFutures would be expanded. This requires higher water levels in peat areas such as the Eider-Treene-Sorge lowlands. Farmers and owners already managing high water levels, for example in the Meggerkoog, would get particular support. In the program's view, intensive farming on peat soils cannot be reconciled with climate neutrality.

The Greens want to preserve the state's forests and put ecosystem protection ahead of timber sales in public forests. To that end, the state forest law and the silviculture guideline for the state forestry agency are to be revised.

Schleswig-Holstein has few forests. The Greens want to protect forests better. In state-owned forests, nature should matter more than selling wood. More forest should be left to itself. Old beech forests should no longer be used.

The program keeps the goal that at least 12 percent of the state's area should be forested and wants to designate considerably more forest as natural forest. Programs for old-growth forest, deadwood and threatened forest communities are planned; old beech forests are to be taken out of use. Timber from the state forests should go into long-lived products where possible. Private forest owners are to get advice on removing drainage so that forests store water again. Near-natural planting with native species, agroforestry research, municipal tree protection bylaws and land for reforestation in municipalities are to be supported.

The Greens want to fully implement the EU Water Framework Directive by 2027 and protect groundwater as the basis of the drinking water supply. In areas with high nitrate levels, no further nutrients are to enter the groundwater.

The Greens want to protect lakes, rivers and groundwater better. Drinking water comes from groundwater. In some areas there is too much nitrate in the water. Nitrate comes from fertilizer, for example. No more should be added there.

The plans and action programs of the directive's third management period are to be carried out in order to preserve or restore the communities of species in lakes and rivers and the quality of the water. On groundwater protection, the party wants to follow the recommendations of the water suppliers. The program names a target of no more than 120 kilograms of nitrogen input per hectare per year, counting every source of nitrogen.

The Greens want to permanently protect the Grünes Band (Green Belt) along the former inner-German border in Schleswig-Holstein as a National Nature Monument. In addition, Knicks (traditional hedgerows) are to be better protected, and nature parks, another "Integrated Station" on the Baltic coast and local conservation initiatives are to receive support.

The Green Belt lies along the old border with East Germany. Many animals and plants live there. The Greens want to protect it for good. Knicks should also be better protected. Knicks are wild hedges on earth banks. Nature parks should get more help.

The program regards the Green Belt as the longest continuous refuge for biodiversity in Germany. The condition of the state's typical hedgerows, which the party considers worrying, is to be reversed because they link habitats and shelter rare species. On the Baltic coast, an additional "Integrated Station" is to coordinate conservation work, including for marine protected areas, and link it with tourism and environmental education. The bodies running the six nature parks are to receive more support, and the "Lokale Aktionen" that coordinate conservation between authorities and land users will continue to be funded.

The Greens call for areas in which any harm to nature from human use is ruled out, even if it would be offset elsewhere. Violations of conservation laws are to be punished with significantly higher fines, and enforcement gaps are to be closed.

The Greens want areas that are only for nature. Nobody may disturb nature there. People who break nature protection laws should pay higher fines. One example is cutting down forest illegally. Authorities should be able to check better.

In statewide planning such as the state development plan and the regional plans, land is to be assigned to two purposes less often. Especially on coasts with heavy tourism, areas for tourism and recreation are to be clearly separated from areas for nature and the environment. The tougher schedules of fines are meant to hit illegal clearing by developers and investors more effectively. Supervisory authorities, police and prosecutors are to be equipped so that they can carry out their environmental protection duties.

The Greens want to reduce new land take for settlements and transport to under 1.3 hectares per day by 2030 and to net zero by 2050 at the latest. To get there, binding annual interim steps are to be written into the regional plans, and trading in land-use certificates is to be introduced.

More and more land is built over for houses and roads. The Greens want to cut this sharply. From 2050, no new land should be built over on balance. There should be fixed rules for every year. Old buildings and empty lots should be used first.

The program relies on three approaches: renovation and reuse before new construction, use of vacant lots and infill development, and recycling of derelict land. The "Sustainable Land Management" project with 30 million euros and the building land fund with 100 million euros in credit volume are to be continued and expanded. The party will examine whether districts and municipalities need fixed land quotas. Certificate trading based on the Federal Environment Agency's proposal is meant to let municipalities keep developing. Sealed surfaces are to be actively unsealed, supported by guidelines and best-practice examples.

The Greens want to make Schleswig-Holstein a leader in the circular economy, with an action plan, a zero-waste strategy and a dedicated state agency. Exemptions from the deposit requirement in cross-border retail are to be scaled back, and deposit systems are to be extended nationwide.

The Greens want less waste. Materials should be used again and again. There should be a plan and a new state office for this. At the border with Denmark, cans are sold without a deposit. This exception should be reduced.

The planned state agency is to set up and carry out funding for the shift to a circular economy. In the long term, the party seeks a can deposit that applies on both sides of the German-Danish border with the same amounts. Resource efficiency is to become a criterion in all funding programs for construction and infrastructure. The state is to support enforcement of the commercial waste ordinance and launch a large waste prevention campaign together with business.

The Greens want packaging waste collected statewide in recycling bins instead of plastic bags and back a uniform nationwide recycling bin. A funding bonus is planned for repairing electrical appliances and for retrofits.

A lot of plastic waste is burned and not recycled. The Greens want to change this. Packaging should go into a bin instead of yellow bags. Other plastic and metal should go into the bin too. People who have electrical devices repaired should get extra money.

Besides packaging, the uniform recycling bin is to take all plastics and metals, with as much as possible recycled. The party wants to support municipalities that already want to introduce it in their negotiations with Duales System Deutschland, the packaging recycling scheme. The program also calls for more initiatives for unpackaged goods in retail and for developing ecologically safe materials, for which universities are to keep receiving funding. In addition to the bonus for repairs and retrofit solutions, repair initiatives are to be supported.

The Greens want to rule out all use on 20 percent of Schleswig-Holstein's Baltic Sea waters by 2030 and to establish a new national park in the Baltic. In the Wadden Sea National Park, economic use is to end on at least half of the area.

The Greens want to protect the North Sea and the Baltic Sea better. There should be a new national park in the Baltic Sea. One fifth of the state's Baltic waters should be left unused. Half of the Wadden Sea park should be free of business use. Seagrass meadows should grow because they store CO2.

In the foreland of the Wadden Sea National Park, at least half of the salt marshes are to remain ungrazed as before. Seagrass meadows in both seas are to be protected and built up. The EU Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive are to be implemented, rest areas for marine species set up, and rivers made more passable for migratory fish. Pilot projects to clean up the Schlei inlet and the Flensburg Fjord will be supported. The state's coastal protection master plan will be carried out, and the "Baltic Coast Strategy 2100" dialogue is to produce measures for the Baltic coast. In the Bundesrat, the party wants at least 30 percent of the exclusive economic zone placed under strict protection, half of it with no use at all.

The Greens want to reduce plastic in inland waters and the seas and are pushing for a plastic tax in the Bundesrat and at EU level. Microplastics in cosmetics are to be banned comprehensively.

There is a lot of plastic waste in seas, lakes and rivers. The Greens want to change this. There should be a tax on plastic. Tiny plastic particles in cosmetics should be banned. Fishers should no longer lose nets in the sea.

In the state, funding is to go to technical solutions that remove plastic residue and microplastics from compost, digestate, other organic residues and wastewater. The organic waste ordinance is to be tightened further and an EU directive on organic waste introduced so that less plastic ends up in organic waste. According to the program, one third of the litter along the North Sea and Baltic Sea comes from fishing. In international shipping and fisheries bodies, the party therefore calls for measures against lost nets that drift in the sea as "ghost nets."

The Greens want funding for efforts to remove abandoned fishing nets from the sea. They also back the federal coalition's plan to ban plastic dolly ropes and promote environmentally sound alternatives.

Old fishing nets drift in the sea. They are called ghost nets. The Greens want money for taking them out. Dolly ropes are plastic threads on fishing nets. The Greens want them banned.

The platform calls for funding measures that retrieve lost nets from the sea. On dolly ropes, the plastic threads that protect trawl nets from abrasion, the Greens support the plans of the federal 'traffic light' coalition for a ban. Environmentally sound substitute materials are to replace the plastic threads.

The Greens want old munitions removed from the North Sea and the Baltic. The state is to advance detection, mapping and the development of new recovery techniques, because the platform says the corroding ordnance releases toxic substances.

A lot of old war munitions lie in the sea. They rust and release poison. The poison gets into fish and mussels. The Greens want the munitions taken out. The state should find them and develop new technology.

According to the platform, about 1.6 million tons of munitions and military waste lie on the seabed of the North and Baltic Seas. As they decay, substances such as TNT enter the ecosystem and reach the food chain through fish and mussels. The Greens back the federal coalition's plans to use recovery robots to make environmentally sound recovery possible quickly. At state level, detection, mapping and research on recovery methods are to be strengthened. Monitoring projects on explosive-related compounds are meant to help deploy recovery capacity according to risk.

The Greens want better prevention of animal epidemics and of diseases that can pass to humans. Animal transports are to become fewer and shorter, and research is to be expanded. Reserve antibiotics would be kept for human medicine only.

The Greens want to prevent animal diseases better. Animals should be transported less often and for shorter distances. There should be more research on this. Certain last-resort antibiotics should be only for people.

The platform points to African swine fever and avian flu, which have often led to the culling of entire herds and flocks, and to long indoor-housing orders that burden small poultry keepers. Research is to examine the role of husbandry, breeding, transport and vaccination. The Greens also want to review soon whether the protection of individual animals can carry more weight in disease control.

The Greens want farms and slaughterhouses inspected more often, at least every five years and also without notice. A state animal welfare plan and a specialized prosecutor's office for animal welfare crimes would be added. The platform argues that inspections also protect the reputation of farms that follow the rules.

The Greens want to check farms and slaughterhouses more often. Each farm should be checked every five years. Some checks come without warning. Special prosecutors should handle cruelty to animals.

Veterinary offices are to get more staff and money, with inspections done by two people and by rotating veterinarians. Checks would also cover fire safety and smoke detectors, and bans on keeping animals are to be monitored effectively. Following Lower Saxony's example, an animal welfare plan would name shortcomings and set time targets. The animal welfare commissioner's post is to become a full-time position. The Greens also favor animal law in legal studies, training for police and the judiciary, and the federal plan to move parts of animal welfare law into the criminal code and raise the maximum penalty.

The Greens want to sharply cut animal experiments in university teaching and replace them with computer simulations where possible. A professorship for animal-free research is to be set up at the university hospital in Kiel or Lübeck. Animal welfare would also get more room in schools and vocational training.

The Greens want fewer experiments on animals at universities. Computers should replace the experiments where possible. A new professor should advance research without animal testing. Children should learn more about animal welfare at school.

The 3R principle (replace, reduce, refine) is to be applied across the board. In schools, animal welfare is to be strengthened in the subject requirements. Vocational schools training for restaurants, bakeries and pastry shops are to offer vegetarian or vegan alternatives, in coordination with the trade chambers. Courses offered by the Chamber of Agriculture are to give more weight to welfare-oriented husbandry.

The Greens want to stop the illegal online trade in puppies and other pets and to regulate animal marketplaces in general. Selling wild-caught animals would be banned, and dogs and cats would have to be registered and tagged nationwide. Circuses are to operate without wild animals in the future.

The Greens want to stop the illegal sale of puppies online. Nobody should be allowed to sell animals caught in the wild. Dogs and cats should be registered all over Germany. Circuses should no longer have wild animals.

According to the platform, illegal online trade causes animal suffering and health risks for animals and people. Anyone wanting to buy or keep endangered or dangerous animals would have to prove the necessary knowledge. Mandatory registration is meant to help return lost pets and fight the puppy trade. The Greens want to achieve wild-animal-free circuses through talks with the federal government and other states, with the animals then placed in sanctuaries or zoos. A guide on managing city pigeons is to be drawn up with municipalities.

The Greens want to keep raising state funding for animal shelters and wildlife rescue stations and to keep the process simple. The platform cites ongoing financial problems at these facilities, which it says worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Greens want to give animal shelters more money. Stations for injured wild animals should get more money too. Applying should be easy. Many of these places do not have enough money.

According to the platform, these facilities have received state money in the current term for the first time since 2006. Support for neutering cats is to continue. In addition, animals kept privately or in rescue stations should be treatable with life-saving or pain-relieving drugs even if they belong to a farm animal species; owners would be able to make this possible by a declaration.

The Greens want a fundamental overhaul of the state hunting law and aim to make Schleswig-Holstein a pioneer of ecological hunting. Hunters' interests are to be better reconciled with nature, species and animal protection.

The Greens want to change the state hunting law a lot. Hunting should respect nature and animals more. Hunters should be allowed to hunt fewer kinds of animals. Ammunition should no longer contain lead.

Hunter training would include more nature conservation content, and exams are to be independent. Fitness to hunt would be checked through regular shooting tests. Wildlife monitoring is to record populations reliably. The plan also includes lead-free ammunition, a shorter list of huntable species and revised hunting seasons.