The General Secretary of the German Federal Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU), Dr. Heinrich Bottermann, is the new State Secretary in the Environmental Ministry of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Bottermann assumed his new position in the state capital of Düsseldorf at the end of June. His former assignments at the DBU are being managed on an interim basis by his assistant, Prof. Dr. Werner Wahmhoff, until the selection of a new General Secretary can take place. In his slightly more than four years at the DBU, a realignment of the foundation’s support activities was carried out under Bottermann’s direction. Now, following the completion of this process, new support funding guidelines and a modified organizational structure at the DBU are in place. Bottermann had been, since October 2013, General Secretary of the DBU, which is based in Osnabrück. During this period, a further 23 sites in the National Natural Inheritance totaling some 9,000 hectares (ha) were awarded to the foundation subsidiary, the DBU Natural Heritage.
