It’s hard to believe: But Munich Airport, with its more than 300,000 take-offs and landings and 37 million passengers last year, is also a top area when it comes to extremely rare and strictly protected birds. Whinchats, meadow pipits, pied flycatchers, redstarts and 36 other special, mostly strictly protected bird species live in the extensive meadows next to and between the runways – completely unaffected by aircraft noise, exhaust fumes and other inconveniences that such an airport brings with it. On the contrary: Munich Airport, together with the Northern Erdinger Moos, is a European bird sanctuary – and has been since 2008. It covers a total of 4,525 hectares, and Munich Airport’s share is around 666 hectares.
One of the regulations for such a bird sanctuary is that the nature conservation authorities – in the case of Erdinger Moos, the government of Upper Bavaria – draw up a management plan. In addition to the species population, the flora and the habitats in the respective protected area, the paper describes in detail all the measures that should be taken to preserve and promote diversity. In addition, grants are paid out on its basis. Such a management plan has a complex lead-up process. Simply because of the mapping of bird species, plants and habitats in the relevant area. But also because landowners, authorities and other specialist bodies are heard and involved.
There is no such management plan for the Nördliches Erdinger Moos bird sanctuary. Although it will soon be 16 years since the protected area was established. The Green MP and parliamentary group deputy in the state parliament, Johannes Becher, is outraged. “15 years of bird sanctuary without any plan as to how we actually want to protect birds and their habitat, that’s a farce,” he says. “The only permanent thing is to postpone the management plan into the distant future.” From Becher’s point of view, the process shows “that the state government made up of the CSU and FW does not care about bird protection and the protection of the Erdinger Moos.”
Johannes Becher from the Greens.
(Photo: Renate Schmidt/Renate Schmidt)
They are also angry at the State Association for Bird Protection (LBV). “The airport meadows have a unique significance for the protection of lapwings, curlews and other meadow breeders in Bavaria,” says the biologist and top species conservationist at the LBV, Andreas von Lindeiner. “There are around a hundred breeding pairs of curlews living in the area around the airport. This is the largest colony we have in Bavaria and a fifth of the entire population.” You have to know that the Free State has been fighting for the survival of the curlew in Bavaria for many years with a species aid program into which thousands of euros are invested every year. “But Upper Bavaria in particular is lagging behind when it comes to implementing the requirements for bird sanctuaries,” says Lindeiner.
In fact, it took eleven years until 2019 alone for the government of Upper Bavaria to even start working on the management plan. At a kick-off event, a first draft was announced for spring 2020, remembers Becher. Since then, the date has been delayed and shifted from year to year. This is shown by the state government’s responses to inquiries that Becher has since sent to it about the matter. The current one is from the beginning of February. The Ministry of the Environment now announces the appearance of the draft at the beginning of 2025. Minister Thorsten Glauber (FW) cites the “particular technical complexity” of the task and the limited staff available for it as the reasons for the ongoing delays.