The relationship between the Bavarian Hunting Association (BJV) on the one hand and the forest owners and farmers on the other has always been tense. Since the CSU member of parliament Ernst Weidenbusch took over the leadership of the BJV in 2020, it has even been considered broken.
The reason is the dispute over hunting. Many forest owners accuse the BJV of sticking to traditional hunting methods and paying far too little attention to the fact that the forests in Bavaria thrive. Because deer, stags and in the mountains also chamois eat far too many young trees together. Overall, too much deer live in the woods. The hunters counter that the forest owners and forest rangers are already mercilessly hunting the game in many places. They, the hunters, no longer wanted to accept that.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Markus Söder and Minister of Agriculture Michaela Kaniber (both CSU) expressly sided with the forest owners. At the forest day in Kelheim, Söder and Kaniber closed with the president of the forest owners’ association, Josef Ziegler, the president of the farmers’ association, Günther Felßner, the head of the family businesses land and forest, Alexander Starker, and the chairman of the forestry committee in the Bavarian town association and mayor of Iphofen in Lower Franconia , Dieter Lenzer, the Forest Pact 2023. In the eleven-page paper, Söder and Kaniber commit themselves to the state government’s hunting policy positions and demands of the forest owners. The BJV was neither involved in the formation of the forest pact, nor did it provide a signatory.
In front of several thousand forest owners, Söder praised the forest pact as a “unique solidarity for the future of our forests”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/. “Forest is formative for the soul of our country,” he said. “With today’s forest pact with the forest owners, we are making a clear commitment to our way of life and to our property.” It is important that the forests are converted into climate forests, the forest owners are the best climate protectors, they “deserve our full support”. Kaniber also praised the forest owners. “With their daily work and commitment, they make an indispensable contribution to the beauty and future viability of our homeland,” she said. “That’s why we support them to the best of our ability.”
Like the hunting association as a whole, the president of the hunters and member of the CSU state parliament, Ernst Weidenbusch, was not involved in the talks for the forest pact.
(Photo: Daniel Vogl/dpa)
Now the state government is known for being willing to make pacts with interest groups, especially in election years. Because they are considered a tried and tested means of maintaining relationships. There is a middle class and a family pact, an environmental pact, a property pact with agriculture, a “freedom pact” for reducing bureaucracy in the economy and many other pacts. What they all have in common is the Free State’s commitment to good and trusting cooperation with the respective partners. They also contain one or two promises, mostly of financial support. Clear edges, on the other hand, are rarely found in them.
The BJV takes note of the pact “with interest”
The Forest Pact also contains all sorts of political poetry and confessions. When it comes to hunting, however, he is unusually clear. “Forest-friendly game stocks must be realized over the entire area,” it says. The state government is also clearly behind the principle “Forest before game”, which states that the vitality of the forests has priority over large numbers of game. Many hunters do not accept it, although it is enshrined in the hunting law. In addition, the state government is open to modernizing the hunting law, in cautious words, but still. The reaction of Jäger President Weidenbusch was reserved. The hunting association takes note of the forest pact “with interest,” he said on Sunday. For a possible partial implementation of its hunting aspects, it is essential to involve the BJV closely.