It should be a wake-up call with a view to forest dieback: Around 120 conservationists in Upper Franconia drew attention to the consequences of climate change. In the Franconian Forest near Ludwigsstadt (Kronach district), the activists in yellow and green jackets and T-shirts stood on a large bare area between dead trees to draw attention to the dimensions of the forest dieback. They held up yellow banners that read “Save the climate” and “Protect the forest”.
The climate crisis has long since arrived in Bavaria, the forests are groaning under the heat and drought, said the chairman of the Federal Nature Conservation Agency (BN), Richard Mergner. The current rain is just a drop in the ocean. The condition of many forests is “absolutely worrying”. The “forest death 2.0” in the Franconian Forest is a foretaste of what threatens all forests in Bavaria if the climate crisis continues unabated. At the same time, the chairman of the association criticized that the state government’s climate protection law was nothing but hot air. “We will not be able to make our contribution to saving the forests with a law that relies on recommendations and voluntariness instead of binding measures and control mechanisms.”
The BN honorary chairman Hubert Weiger called the forest conversion essential. In addition to the reforestation of bare areas, the key to this is above all the regeneration of the forests with climate-resilient native tree species such as silver fir, beech and oak. For reforestation and forest regeneration, the BN calls for higher shooting quotas for roe deer and red deer