Federal Association of Landscape Protection
The Bundesverband Landschaftsschutz eV (BLS) is an astroturfing organization that, according to its own statements, was founded in 1995 by "residents of the East and North Frisian coast". His only task is the fight against wind turbines , which he sees as the destruction of the landscape. Ferdinand Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Bartenstein has been chairman for many years . The seat is in Rechenberg-Bienenmühle .
Procedure and background
The aim of the BLS is public relations work against the use of wind energy . For this purpose, the BLS provides local citizens' initiatives against wind turbines with arguments, arguments and material to strengthen them. This is a hybrid of real citizen engagement and lobbying . According to Irmisch, this represents an important step in the development of astroturfing campaigns, as the public is no longer simply fooled, but citizens are involved in lobbying in order to increase the credibility of Astroturfing.
Media reports and the relevant publications of the BUND claim that the BLS has links and contacts to the conventional energy industry and provide evidence that the BLS is a cover organization of the energy lobby . There are several journalistic and scientific works that deal with the structures and interdependencies of the BLS. So was z. B. proved in 1998 that the BLS brochures were regularly postmarked by a large energy supply company . Tracking of fax numbers also led to the BLS spokesman's employer at the time, an aluminum producer for whom he worked as the head of the Public Affairs department. However, exactly how the organization's funding works is unknown.
The BLS itself denies having any contacts with the energy industry. In May 2010, the BLS announced that it was a member of the European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW) (founded in 2008), a European platform against wind power.
literature
From the BLS environment:
- (among others distributed by BLS :) Wilhelm Münker Foundation (ed. and publisher): Wind power - planning benefit environmental issues , Siegen 1997
- Otfried Wolfrum (ed.): Wind power: An alternative that isn't, two thousand and one, 1997, ISBN 3-86150-238-0
Critical publications:
- Michael Franken (ed.): Rauher Wind - The organized resistance against wind power 1st edition. Alano-Herodot-Verlag, Aachen 1998, ISBN 3-89399-242-1 - published a. a. from the trade association Windkraftwerke eV
- Franz Alt , Jürgen Claus, Hermann Scheer (eds.): Windy protest - conflicts about the future potential of wind power 1st edition. Ponte Press, Bochum 1998, ISBN 3-920328-37-X
Judgments and TV reports:
- Report ARD-Magazin PLUS-MINUS, December 9th, 1997: DUBIOSE COMBAT METHODS - Wind power in the sights of the Federal Association of Landscape Protection
- Judgment of the Landgericht Trier , April 19, 1999, file number: 6 O 217/98: “According to the result of the taking of evidence […] the court is convinced that the plaintiff (Federal Association of Landscape Protection = BLS) has no connections or entanglements of any kind with Companies in the electricity industry, therefore not their front organization. "
- Judgment of the Giessen Regional Court , July 12, 1999, file number 2 O 263/99: a private person was obliged to revoke in writing "that the Federal Association of Landscape Protection is a cover organization of the Association of German Electricity Works (VDEW)".
- Report WDR magazine MONITOR , March 25, 2004: Wind power: The wrong game of the electricity lobby
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ About us ( Memento from January 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Anna Irmisch Astroturf. A new lobbying strategy in Germany? Wiesbaden 2011, p. 28f.
- ^ BUND : Information on "Citizens' Initiatives" that are controlled by industry
- ^ BLS website