After two virtual years, the environmental festival is finally back at the Brandenburg Tor. On Sunday, the GRÜNE LIGA Berlin will once again celebrate together with Berlin and its guests in the very centre of the city. "This year we are particularly pleased about the high-calibre guests who will be celebrating International Environment Day with us," says Sandra Kolberg, Managing Director of the GRÜNE LIGA Berlin.

For example, Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke and Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir - in keeping with this year's motto "Water - Elixir of Life" - will debate with Prof. Dr. Götz Rehn, Managing Director of Alnatura, and Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. Hartmut Vogtmann, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Alnatura Organic Farmers' Initiative, on the large festival stage about solutions for sustainable agriculture in view of drought, pollutant emissions and soil degradation. On the stage at the Soviet Memorial, the topic of vegan nutrition is on the programme. Cooking shows will demonstrate how many delicious things can be conjured up from vegan ingredients. The play "The Dragons of the Sea" by the street theatre group "Producciones Abismales" will address the issue of ocean pollution caused by plastic waste.

On 11^th of May 22 Michael Bender (Living Rivers Foundation), Tobias Schäfer (WWF Germany, Patagonia and flow:europe organized a River Film evening as part of the next World Fish Migration Day (21.05.22) at the Patagonia Store Berlin.

Four short movies were presented, as well as the multi-award-winning documentary “Was Fische wollen. Last chance for the Tyrolean Inn.” from Christoph Walder. It shows the causes and background of the dramatic decline of the Tyrolean Inn and give a voice to the committed fishermen and conservationist fighting for the return of free-flowing rivers.

A trailer is available here: https://vimeo.com/567821999.

Theresa Schiller (WWF Germany), Tobias Schäfer (WWF Germany), Dr. Ruben van Treeck (IfB: Institute of Inland Fisheries) and Olaf Lindner (DAFV: German Angling Association) had a discussion with the engaged audience on wild rivers, migratory fish and hydropower and highlighted the new Renewable Energy Sources Act, currently debated in the Bundestag. The Riverfilm event was moderated by Michael Bender (Living Rivers Foundation). 

Potsdam, 9.5.2022. This week, the expert participation in the climate plan enters the second round. On this occasion, 27 stakeholders, who are involved by the Ministry of the Environment (MLUK) as experts in the development of the climate plan, published an open letter to Minister President Woidke today.
The experts from civil society, business and science call on the state government to specify in the climate plan the total amount of residual emissions that Brandenburg will still emit until it achieves climate neutrality. They also demand that these amounts of maximum residual emissions be anchored in a climate protection law. The demand is supported by over 70 Brandenburg organisations from the fields of climate, environmental and nature protection, transport associations, conventional and organic agriculture, forestry and hunting, the energy industry, local civil society initiatives, scientists and members of the Brandenburg Sustainability Advisory Council.

The Jänschwalde opencast mine does not have to be stopped on 15 May, according to today's decision by the Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court (OVG). The Higher Administrative Court refused to suspend the current opencast mining permit in summary proceedings and amended a corresponding decision of the Cottbus Administrative Court.
"With today's decision, the legal ambiguity surrounding the Jänschwalde opencast mine continues. The court expressly leaves open whether the opencast mine is currently being operated illegally. This can only be decided in the main proceedings. The region affected by the lowering of the groundwater will be confronted with the consequences of the open-cast mine for a long time to come," says Sascha Müller-Kraenner, national director of Deutsche Umwelthilfe.
"In the case of the Jänschwalde opencast mine, LEAG still lacks several permits to implement its ideas. For example, it is still unclear whether the water extraction, which has so far only been permitted until 2022, can be extended until 2044 as requested by LEAG. In addition, the company wants to deviate from the current lignite mining plan in terms of recultivation and has not yet received permission from the authorities to do so. In all these proceedings, we will intensively examine how the damage to the water balance caused by opencast mining can be effectively minimised," says René Schuster of the GRÜNE LIGA.

The alliance of associations "For a modern hunting and forestry law" calls for an ambitious turnaround in hunting and therefore welcomes the draft amendment to the Brandenburg Hunting Law.

The Brandenburg alliance of associations "For a modern hunting and forestry law", consisting of ÖJV, ANW, Waldbauernverband, BUND, Grüne Liga, NaturFreunden and NABU, today submits its joint statement on the draft of the new hunting law in Brandenburg presented by the state government on 4 March. The associations agree that this draft represents an urgently needed paradigm shift and thus opens the way to a sustainable, socially broadly accepted hunting system that not only brings forests and game into good coexistence.

The necessity for such a hunting turnaround has been known for a long time. The scientific advisory board of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, for example, noted this in its report "Cornerstones of the Forest Strategy 2050" in 2020 and recognised the change in hunting laws as an essential step with which forest owners must be given the opportunity to adjust the game stocks in their forests in such a way that the regeneration of all tree species is possible even without browsing protection measures. This admonition of science is now finally being heard in Brandenburg.

Eckhard Fuhr, deputy chairman of the Ecological Hunting Association Brandenburg-Berlin (ÖJV) explains: "There are three important guiding ideas behind this reorientation of hunting in Brandenburg. These are the strengthening of the owners by drastically reducing the minimum size for proprietary hunts, a far-reaching de-bureaucratisation of hunting by abolishing all shooting plans and the strengthening of animal protection."