On 6 October 2018, the Association of Nature and Biodiversity Conservation NRW (NABU NRW) organized the 1st NRW Nature Conservation Day at the Institute for Landscape Ecology  under the topic “Blühende Land(wirt)schaft – Ist das Natur oder kann das weg?”. The conference, which constituted the prelude to an annual series, dealt with the problem of threatened species through the extensive agricultural use of land.

Effective protection of biological diversity is also prevented by the lack of protected areas and buffer zones, low prices for agricultural produces and lack of subsidies. In particular, appropriate conservation measures at local and regional level and a redistribution of EU funding to nature-compatible agriculture and nature conservation are urgently needed in order to protect nature and thus comply with EU nature conservation directives.

Together with 100 other participants, ZIN-member Prof. Tillmann Buttschardt therefore called on German politicians to advocate a minimum budget for biodiversity services in Brussels and to enforce a minimum requirement for protection zones as well as a one-year and multi-year fallow land in order to conserve biodiversity.

Further information can be found is provided by the NABU conference report on its homepage.