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Newts in Danger

Merkel Wants to Loosen EU Wildlife Protection

The German government wants to relax European wildlife conservation laws to allow businesses to grow more easily. That's a bad idea, says the WWF. The field hamsters need our help.

Bad news for newts, field hamsters and bats: The German government wants to loosen European wildlife protection laws to make it easier for businesses to expand and create jobs.

Business lobbyists hate the new rules which were adopted by Germany at the start of 2006 after years of wrangling with Brussels. The laws enforce the creation of protected areas for all types of wildlife deemed to be at risk.

The result, though, has been the blocking a number of projects, including road construction projects and industrial expansion schemes -- including a lignite coal mining venture in the economically depressed eastern German state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has held confidential talks with European Union officials and plans to start negotiating revisions to the rules, enshrined in the EU's 1992 directive on the conservation of natural habitats, in autumn 2007.

A senior member of Merkel's conservative Christian Democrat party, Roland Koch, who is premier of the western state of Hesse, said no industrial nation in the world could cope with such strict wildlife conservation rules in the long term.

The conservation group WWF said it was concerned at the prospect of early negotiations and had not expected any revisions to be discussed before 2010 to give the EU time to monitor the impact of the rules.

"Europe has a responsibility to set an example to the rest of the world," said Martina Fleckenstein, WWF Germany's head of EU policy. "We can't urge Africa and South America to get better at wildlife conservation if we don't do so ourselves."

Fleckenstein said Poland and Germany have been pushing for early revisions of the guidelines. Critics of the directive should take into account its economic benefits, she said.

"One mustn't ignore the huge benefits conservation areas and national parks bring in terms of tourism, regional development and EU funding," she said.

cro/spiegel