Association for landscape conservation and species protection in Bavaria

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Association for Landscape
Management and Species Protection in Bavaria eV (VLAB)
logo
purpose Nature conservation , environmental protection and the prevention of wind turbines
Chair: Johannes Bradtka
Establishment date: October 9, 2015
Number of members: approx. 9,000 (2016)
Seat : Erbendorf
Website: www.landschaft-artenschutz.de

The Association for Landscape Management and Species Protection in Bavaria eV , abbreviated VLAB, is an organization recognized by both the Free State of Bavaria and the Federal Environment Agency as an environmental and nature conservation association . The association has around 9,000 members in Bavaria. The association was founded by opponents of the energy transition. One of the main goals of the work is to prevent wind turbines and photovoltaic systems from being set up on open spaces in Germany.

The voluntarily run VLAB is financed by membership fees and donations. Johannes Bradtka has been chairman since 2015. The association is organized throughout Bavaria and in some district groups and, since 2018, in some state associations nationwide.

history

The VLAB emerged from a local association with the name “Our Hessenreuther Wald eV”, which became an association with the name “Our Hessenreuther Wald - Association for Landscape Management and Species Protection in Bavaria”. The forest area lies on the border between the Upper Palatinate districts of Neustadt ad Waldnaab and Tirschenreuth . The chairman of the association was Johannes Bradtka, (forest officer, activist and former member of the Bund Naturschutz in Bayern ). The aim was to prevent the construction of a car test track through the forest and wind turbines. After the project on the Hessenreuther Wald, the focus of the association's work was on the "dangers of the energy transition for landscape and biodiversity" claimed by the VLAB.

The Association for Landscape Management and Species Protection in Bavaria (VLAB) emerged from the forerunner organizations in 2015 together with other opponents of the energy transition .

The founding members stated that the traditional and large environmental protection associations had put the original goals of nature, landscape and species protection aside in favor of the energy transition and climate protection . Enoch zu Guttenberg acted as the keyword for the VLAB. In 1975 he co-founded the Association for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (BUND) and resigned from it in 2012 because of the aforementioned impression. The developments that led to the foundation of the VLAB did not take place without personal conflicts. Enoch zu Guttenberg himself stated that “former comrades-in-arms” from the field of nature conservation have now become “bitter opponents”. From the founding of the association until his death in 2018, zu Guttenberg was one of the two honorary presidents of the VLAB. The other is Hubert Weinzierl , who was Chairman of the BUND from 1983 to 1998. As successor to Guttenbergs, the biologist Josef H. Reichholf was appointed the new honorary president of the VLAB in October 2018 .

With the amendment to the statutes of October 13, 2018, the VLAB opened its Germany-wide commitment without changing the addition of "Bavaria" to its name. In fact, the VLAB takes on the tasks of both a state and an umbrella association. The establishment of a real umbrella organization is being considered. With the expansion of the sphere of activity, the VLAB includes two regional associations from other federal states:

  • The Association for Landscape Management and Species Protection in Baden-Württemberg (VLABW)
  • The Association for Landscape Management and Species Protection in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (VLA-MV)

In January 2019, the VLAB received nationwide recognition as an environmental and nature conservation association from the Federal Environment Agency: “With this recognition, the VLAB can get involved in construction and infrastructure projects nationwide if it sees issues relating to nature and environmental protection. The association can take legal action against approval notices in administrative courts - otherwise this is only possible for those directly involved, such as residents. "

At the beginning of 2020, the association gained nationwide fame when it ultimately unsuccessfully sued against a pine forest clearing for the Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg . According to Nau.ch , he had previously attracted attention "primarily through actions against wind power and as an opponent of the energy transition ".

aims

The VLAB wants to prevent the construction of wind turbines

According to the website, the main goals of the organization are "to preserve the diversity, uniqueness and beauty of nature and landscape" and to fight "against the excesses of the energy transition". According to Spiegel Online , the VLAB "vehemently rejects the energy transition, sues against wind turbines [...] protests against the construction of power lines" and is "on principle" against the electric car manufacturer Tesla .

According to its own information, the VLAB sees the current climate change as a "major, globally pressing problem" and generally advocates "a sustainable and ecologically compatible expansion of the energy supply with renewable energies". At the same time he calls for a construction freeze for further "wind turbines and large photovoltaic open space systems in the cultivated landscapes and forests". Instead, fossil gas and steam combined-cycle power plants, supplemented by biogas plants, are to provide the energy "until new forms of sustainable, environmentally friendly energy generation are developed". The organization considers the energy turnaround to be unsuitable for "reducing global CO2 emissions".

In particular, the VLAB is strictly against the use of wind energy and vehemently advocates keeping the Bavarian 10-H distance regulation. This means that the distance from a wind turbine to the nearest settlement must be at least ten times ('10H') the total height, which is around 2 kilometers for modern systems. Instead of building new wind turbines, the VLAB wants to extend the life of nuclear power plants .

A specific animal protection project of the VLAB is the reintroduction of the Ural Owl in the Upper Palatinate

The VLAB is also networked across Germany with organizations where there are overlapping goals, such as the German Wildlife Foundation . There is further cooperation with Vernunftkraft, the umbrella organization for opponents of wind power in Germany.

A specific animal welfare project of VLAB is the reintroduction of the Habichtskauzes in the Steinwald Nature Park in the Upper Palatinate. After a four-week transition period, animals from zoos and wildlife parks were released in several waves in an aviary, most recently seven birds in June 2019. Another commitment of the association is the examination of construction projects with regard to surface sealing and nature and species protection. In the summer of 2019, the VLAB submitted its objections to a bypass in Dormitz in Upper Franconia to the responsible district government.

criticism

The VLAB is a member of the "Bundesinitiative Vernunftkraft eV", which is critical of the energy transition and which, according to the state manager of the BUND Brandenburg, Axel Kruschat, denies man-made climate change . The magazine t3n pointed out that representatives of the VLAB had denied man-made climate change in interviews and that there was also personal overlap with the power of reason. The power of reason is also an institutional member of the VLAB.

Jürgen Holl, the managing director of the Neustadt / Waldnaab district group of the Bund Naturschutz in Bayern , and Ali Daniel Zant from the Weidener Greenpeace local group are critical of the VLAB's recognition as an environmental and nature conservation association. The association was founded primarily to prevent wind turbines :

“The VLAB has absolutely nothing to do with environmental protection. Under the guise of species protection there is an association that primarily wants to prevent wind turbines. "

- Jürgen Holl

The Brandenburg Green League also distanced itself from the VLAB in February 2020 and stated that they had no similarities with "associations that deny man-made climate change or speak out in favor of coal or nuclear power".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg Etscheit (Ed.): Sacrificed landscapes. How the energy transition is destroying our environment. Munich 2016, p. 19. The number of members "9,000" is also documented in: Thomas Pfeuffer: A fight against windmills ?, in: Main-Post of September 30, 2017, p. 28.
  2. ↑ VLAB: § 10b of the statutes: https://www.landschaft-artenschutz.de/wp-content/uploads/Satzung-Stand-13.-Oktober-2018.pdf
  3. ↑ Small request to the Bavarian State Parliament
  4. ^ Website of the association at that time
  5. ↑ New environmental association wants to compete with federal nature conservation , in: Augsburger Allgemeine from August 2, 2015.
  6. ↑ a b c d e Right links in the environmental movement. Conservationists argue about Tesla plant . In: Spiegel Online , February 18, 2020. Accessed February 18, 2020.
  7. ↑ Enoch zu Guttenberg: I am leaving the BUND. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . May 13, 2012, accessed June 19, 2013 .
  8. ↑ Enoch zu Guttenberg: Steel monsters. In: Georg Etscheit (Ed.): Sacrificed landscapes. How the energy transition is destroying our environment. Munich 2016, p. 27.
  9. ↑ VLAB: Press release of October 14, 2018: https://www.landschaft-artenschutz.de/wp-content/uploads/Pressemeldung-VLAB-w%C3%A4hlt-Josef-H.-Reichholf-zum-Ehrenpr%C3 % A4sident.pdf
  10. ↑ VLAB: § 10b of the statutes: https://www.landschaft-artenschutz.de/wp-content/uploads/Satzung-Stand-13.-Oktober-2018.pdf
  11. ↑ VLABW: Association for site and species protection in Baden-Wuerttemberg
  12. ↑ VLA-MV: http://www.vla-mv.de/startseite.html
  13. ↑ Umweltbundesamt: Environment and nature conservation associations recognized by the federal government, p. 10 (as of February 5, 2019. URL: https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/2378/dokumente/anerkanned_umwelt-_und_naturschutzvereinigungen_0. pdf ). See also report by Bayerischer Rundfunk from March 25, 2019. URL: https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/konferenz-fuer-bund-und-nabu-vlab-nun-bundesweit-anerkannt,RLkg0CL (accessed on 31 July 2019).
  14. ↑ Wolfgang Würth: In nature conservation first league , in: O-Netz from February 13, 2019 (accessed March 14, 2019).
  15. ↑ Tesla is allowed to continue clearing the forest for the plant in Grünheide . In: Potsdam Latest News , February 20, 2020. Accessed February 21, 2020.
  16. ↑ Conservationists in the dispute over the Tesla clearing stop on the defensive . In: Nau.ch , February 19, 2020. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
  17. ↑ About us . VLAB website. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  18. ↑ VLAB: https://www.landschaft-artenschutz.de/wp-content/uploads/Kernan Bäumen.pdf
  19. ^ Association from Bavaria against the Tesla project . In: Potsdam Latest News , February 4, 2020. Accessed February 17, 2020.
  20. ↑ https://www.landschaft-artenschutz.de/vlab-fuer-den-uneingeschraenkten-erhalt-der-10-h-abstandsregel/
  21. ^ "Bavarian court approves wind power opponents" , in: Spiegel Online from May 9, 2016.
  22. ↑ Also bird protectors for wind power and against distance rule . In: Bayerischer Rundfunk , January 30, 2020. Accessed February 18, 2020.
  23. ↑ Hawk owls are released in the stone forest. Bayerischer Rundfunk, June 29, 2017, accessed on August 2, 2019 .
  24. ↑ Hawk owls are said to be native to northern Bavaria. Bayerischer Rundfunk, February 25, 2019, accessed on August 2, 2019 . See Ural Owl Project
  25. ↑ Seven other owls move to Northern Bavaria. Süddeutsche Zeitung , June 21, 2019, accessed on August 21, 2020 . ++ (accessed August 1, 2019), in: Main-Post from June 22, 2019, section Franconia, p. 10.
  26. ↑ Article in "Wiesentbote" from June 17, 2019. URL: https://www.wiesentbote.de/2019/06/17/einendung-des-vlab-gegen-die-ortsumgehung-dormitz-im-landkreis-forchheim/ (Accessed July 31, 2019).
  27. ↑ Franziska Hoppen: Background to VLAB: Why a club from Bavaria is involved in Tesla. In: rbb24 . February 14, 2020, accessed February 16, 2020 .
  28. ↑ Tesla factory in Grünheide: Valuable forest or useless monoculture? . In: t3n , February 19, 2020. Accessed February 19, 2020.
  29. ↑ Reason, January 26, 2017
  30. ↑ Wolfgang Würth: No joy about the success of the VLAB. In: Onetz . February 20, 2019, accessed February 16, 2020 .