The Greens promised the great upheaval in nature conservation, the ecological change in the city, no less before the election. As the strongest parliamentary group in the city council and a major partner in the coalition with the SPD, they want to create the structures for this and reorganize the administration in a powerful way.
The new department for climate and environmental protection (RKU) has been working since January 1st of this year. This is where the largest possible part of the environmental sector, which has already been organized in the city, should end up, the lower nature conservation authority. But after a long and intense struggle, the Greens had to agree on a compromise with the SPD. About two thirds of the 40 or so employees should, according to information from Süddeutsche Zeitung remain in the planning department as before. One third will belong to the RKU in the future.
What sounds like an internal administrative tussle could have very concrete effects on the people of Munich and especially on their building projects. Because the lower nature conservation authority checks the permits in the local building commission for their admissibility in the environmental area. Among other things, she is also responsible for tree protection, which the Greens want to strengthen as an important building block for an ecologically compatible climate in Munich, but which also drives many builders to despair.
This area of the Lower Nature Conservation Authority will remain in the planning department if the compromise is translated into a draft resolution for the city council. This also applies to the employees who focus on the environmental compatibility of building projects. At the same time, the RKU can and will write its own statement on major plans and submit it to the city council for decision-making.
The competition for land between nature conservation and the construction of new apartments is already a hotly debated topic politically. “We want to make conflicts that arise there transparent,” said Mona Fuchs, deputy parliamentary group leader in the Greens. This is the only way city councils can weigh up all aspects of a building project. But it is not about building parallel structures or extending procedures.
As requested by the Greens, on the other hand, all employees who deal with extensive nature conservation will switch to the RKU, for example with the designation, supervision and monitoring of protected areas or natural monuments. The so-called area backdrop of biodiversity is also to be developed there, i.e. the definition and mapping of areas in the city, the preservation of which is considered indispensable for the ecological turnaround. SPD parliamentary group leader Christian Müller sees nature conservation as strengthened and at the same time secured the planning process for the construction of apartments, a central issue of the SPD for tenant protection. Both sides would have made concessions. “You are never satisfied with a compromise, but we are satisfied that there is a compromise.”
The initial reactions from environmental groups are far less satisfied with the deal. It was “a great opportunity completely wasted”, said on Wednesday Heinz Sedlmeier, managing director of the state association for bird protection (LBV). Together with the Bund Naturschutz (BN), the LBV had demanded that the Lower Nature Conservation Authority be completely relocated to the Department for Climate and Environmental Protection.
In view of climate change and the dramatic decline in species of plants and animals, also in Munich, the nature conservation authority would have to take on completely different tasks than it had previously as a subordinate authority of the planning department. The “tearing apart” of the Lower Nature Conservation Authority “only leads to a confusion of competencies,” says Sedlmeier. Sedlmeier uses an example to show how little the authority has so far addressed the interests of nature and environmental protection: almost two decades ago, the LBV submitted proposals for protected areas to the nature conservation authority, including five groundwater sources that were examined in detail. So far, none of it has been implemented, “not even processed”.
Rudolfrautel, managing director of the Bund Naturschutz in Munich, also becomes clear in view of the plans of Grün-Rot. “Climate change and species loss are not waiting, so Munich must act now and set up a powerful nature conservation authority,” says Bastel. In Munich, it is no longer about avoiding a temperature rise of two degrees – that has long been a reality. “It’s about preventing a four or five degree rise, we need good management for that.” From the point of view of the BN managing director, protected areas in favor of building projects are always available as long as the authority is largely part of the planning department. A competence center in the climate protection and environment department could set other priorities.