The German Nature Conservation Congress (DNT) has never received as much attention as it did this year: from 25 to 29 September, more than 1,300 experts from around Germany who are involved in conservation efforts either professionally or voluntarily came to Kiel for the 34th annual German Nature Conservation Congress. The focus of this year’s Congress was international marine and coastal conservation. Other topics included the decline in biodiversity; conservation in the agricultural landscape, protected areas and cities; and legal, planning and economic conservation issues.
As part of the Nature Conservation Congress, participants created a catalogue of demands for the protection of the oceans that was adopted at the end of the Congress as the Kiel Declaration. In the declaration, participants demand that marine and coastal conservation become a guiding principle for political action. In their view, the negative impacts of actions such as overfishing, pollution, acidification and massive underwater noise on the marine environment must be prevented or minimised such that the oceans can return to a “good environmental status”. In order for this to happen, it is imperative that all species and habitats be protected from further strain and, first and foremost, that we drastically reduce the amount of waste produced around the world. Germany needs to increase its support for the global expansion of professional waste disposal and recycling systems. Moreover, the DNT demands that microplastic be banned from all cosmetics, cleaning products and household goods, and that dumping in the oceans be stopped. We also need to put an end to ghost nets – fishing nets that have been left or lost in the oceans.
Due to the fact that, in the past, international agreements on marine conservation have not been sufficiently effective and are implemented slowly if at all, the Kiel Declaration also calls for improving the system of protected areas in German waters and providing support for the designation of new, international protected areas. Another demand is the introduction of taxes on nitrogen surpluses and pesticides in order to drastically reduce the quantity of these dangerous substances that are dumped into rivers and flow into the oceans.
