For a long time, the GRÜNE LIGA Osterzgebirge and the Ranoala Rainforest Association have been supporting reforestation projects in the (former) East Madagascar rainforest area. About ten years ago, the focus gradually began to expand from pure forest work to environmental education projects. This has developed into a school partnership between the Glückauf-Gymnasium Altenberg and the Lycée of the Malagasy village of Anjahambe, but above all into a wonderful partnership between committed young people in both, far-away countries. In Anjahambe, the "Analasoa-Club" (analasoa = the good forest) is active, in Altenberg the "Madagascar-AG".

The activities on both sides are based on the same principle: first working together practically for nature, then going on trips together to learn more about nature. Several times a year, the Analasoa Club organises student planting missions around the remaining rainforest called Analasoa. This involves multi-day excursions in rented "bush taxis" to well-known Malagasy national parks and other protected areas - financed by donations from Dresden and the Eastern Erz Mountains.

The up to 25 pupils plant rowan trees on the Kahleberg, tend wild hedges and take part in practical species protection measures around Altenberg. In return, once a year there is a larger trip to "rainforest experience places in Central Europe": to Gondwanaland Leipzig and the rainforest museum Phyllodrom, to the "Biosphäre" Potsdam, and even to the Masoala Hall of the Zurich Zoo. In 2019, the Madagascar-AG visited the Federal Ministry for Development Cooperation in Bonn and the Madagascar House of the Cologne Zoo.

60 organisations from agriculture and society are calling for the "We're fed up!" demonstration on 21 January. The GRÜNE LIGA is taking part. The slogan of the 2023 agricultural turnaround demonstration is "Good food for all - instead of profits for a few". Thousands of people are expected to march through Berlin's government quarter to kick off the world's largest agricultural trade fair, the Green Week, in support of consistent climate protection, species-appropriate animal husbandry, the preservation of biodiversity and global solidarity.

Climate crisis, food poverty, dying farms - the list of failures in agricultural, social and environmental policy is long. The balance sheet after one year of traffic light government is sobering and can be summarised as "too slow and too little". The "We're fed up!" alliance demands more speed in the socially just agricultural and food transition. In concrete terms, this means: fair producer prices for farms and the food trade, as well as much more support for those affected by poverty, so that they can afford fairly and sustainably produced, healthy food. 

Water law permit for Jänschwalde opencast mine expired at the turn of the year
Cottbus, 04.01.2023. The permit for the Jänschwalde open-cast mine to pump groundwater expired on 31.12.2022, but the open-cast mine will apparently continue to operate without a new permit. This creates facts in a legal vacuum, criticises the environmental network GRÜNE LIGA.

"Since 1996, all parties involved knew when the permit would expire, but a decision on the time after that has not been made until today. The coal company LEAG has delayed the procedure with late and incomplete applications and is not prevented by the mining authority from creating further facts. It is very difficult to believe in the rule of law here," says René Schuster of the GRÜNE LIGA.

Lakes, Wetlands and Natural Climate Protection in the UN Decade of Habitat Restoration

Thursday, 19 January 2023 from 10.00 to 17.00

Friday, 20 January 2023 from 9.30 to 13.00

in bUm - Betterplace Umspannwerk , Paul-Linke-Ufer 21, Berlin

We cordially invite you to the Lakes Conference 2023. Too little attention is still paid to lakes, wetlands and their catchments as carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots. Lakes continue to be overexploited, peatlands drained and wetlands not rewetted as required. With the Lakes Conference 2023, we want to strengthen the focus on these valuable habitats and at the same time broaden the perspective for contributions to natural climate protection in Germany and beyond.

Biodiversity goals in danger? 

Positioning of the AG-Wasser on hydropower development and river restoration against the background of the biodiversity goals and the climate crisis 

on 08.12.2022 14:00 - 17:00 CET

According to the WWF's Living Planet Report, the global population of wild species has declined by 69% since 1970. At 83%, the loss of species in lakes, rivers and wetlands is even more dramatic. Environmental associations, anglers and other organisations have joined forces at the European level to form the Living Rivers Coalition in order to halt this trend and reverse it. With the Green Deal, the Water Framework Directive, the Biodiversity Strategy and the recently proposed Nature Restoration Law, good instruments have been and are being developed at EU level to achieve this goal. At the same time, the expansion of renewable energies is being pushed forward on a large scale. In the course of this, there are increased efforts to streamline the planning requirements for infrastructure projects, in particular also by directly undermining nature and water protection regulations. This, with the intention of counteracting the climate crisis, further exacerbates the European and global biodiversity crisis.

The sustainable use and equitable distribution of water is one of the most pressing problems of our time. At the same time, scarce freshwater resources and their associated ecosystems are being overexploited, polluted and damaged all over the world. Whether water will still be sufficiently available and drinkable in the future, and who will have access to it, depends more than ever on political decisions around water use. To discuss these challenges, we cordially invite you and your colleagues to an online seminar. Details on the programme and registration can be found below.

Programme

14:00: Welcome

Jürgen Maier, Forum Environment and Development

14:10: Presentation of the FUE position on hydropower

Thilo Papacek, CounterCurrents 

14:40: "Break Free" - Restoring river ecosystems by dismantling transverse structures 

Michael Bender, Living Rivers Foundation 

15:10: Commentary on the Renewable Energy Directive by WWF 

Tobias Schäfer, WWF

15:40: Hydropower in development cooperation 

Jutta Himmelsbach, Misereor

16:15 h: Break 

16:30: Hydropower to hydrogen? The Inga III Project

Salomé Elolo, Femmes Solidaires

Registration: roth (at) forumue.de

The event will be held in German with English translation. 

You can find the invitation here: www.grueneliga.de/images/Wasser/FORUMUE-AGWASSER-81222.pdf