PROACT GERMANY

CORMORANT PERSECUTION - NABU PRESS STATEMENT

HOME | CORMORANTS - LAKE CONSTANCE | NABU PRESS STATEMENT | CORMORANTS - SAXONY | GULLS - BOCHOLT | PROACT MAIN | JOIN THE PROACT TEAM


NABU PRESS STATEMENT 04.04.2008


The biodiversity action plan begins (with the killing of Cormorants?)

NABU demands manifest protection of biological with deeds - Over 2,100 emails received in the protest action against the extermination of the Cormorant brood.

Stuttgart: The dispute over the extermination of the brood of the only Cormorant colony on the German shores of Lake Constance takes place against a remarkable background. Today, 4th April, initiatives for the conservation of biological diversity are taking place all over Germany. The state of Baden-Wuerttemberg is holding a ceremony in the town of Aidlingen to mark the start of the campaign. Dr Andre Baumann of the nature protection organization NABU states: "We welcome the intention of the state authorities to finally make a greater effort in respect of conservation of biological diversity. In this connection the actions planned on the shores of Lake Constance take our breath away. Here, in the same state, a protected bird species is to be massively decimated. The Cormorant is as much a part of the natural world of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Lake Constance as its reed beds and water. The extermination of the Cormorant colony in the Aachried nature reserve and European SPA is totally contradictory to the implementation of an action plan for biodiversity. We would welcome a statement from the Minister for Nature Protection Peter Hauk today expressing support for protection of the Cormorants."
On Monday NABU began a protest action against the destruction of the Cormorant brood. Since then over 2,100 protest emails have been sent to the responsible local authority. "This demonstrates clearly that normal citizens are opposed to renewed Cormorant killing on the shores of Lake Constance. They want to be assured that the Cormorant is seen as part of our biological diversity" says Baumann. The NABU protest campaign is still in full swing. All nature lovers are urged to send an email - link at www.NABU-BW.de - to the Chief Executive of the local authority, Julian Würtenberger, demanding that he put a stop to the Cormorant persecution.
NABU has been campaigning for days against the local authority's plans to destroy the Cormorant colony. The plan is the use a frosty April night to drive off the parent birds from the nests with searchlights so that the embryos in the eggs die. This would also lead to freshly hatched chicks freezing to death. This is in contravention of German animal protection legislation.


WHAT YOU CAN DO

Cut and paste the text below and send an URGENT email to the Chief Executive of Freiburg City Council by clicking on the link below.

To: poststelle@rpf.bwl.de

bcc: nabu@nabu-bw.de, proact-campaigns@online.de


To:
The Chief Executive Freiburg City Council

Dear Mr. Würtenberger,

I was shocked to learn that your authority plans to destroy
the only Cormorant colony on the German shores of Lake Constance. It appears that, on an icy April night, you plan to use searchlights to drive the brooding birds from their nests with the consequence that the chicks, or the embryos in the eggs, freeze to death. In addition, it will be permitted to shoot these imposing birds from the 1st of August onwards, a time at which many of the birds are still involved with the rearing of their young.

I wish to register my protest against these disgraceful plans.

The Lake Constance region is rightly considered by residents, tourists and nature lovers, in Germany and elsewhere, to be a natural paradise. This is because it is a region where nature can unfold undisturbed to its full extent and it therefore attracts visitors because its natural diversity - above all its bird life - can be vividly experienced.

The planned persecution of the Cormorants will ruin the reputation of the Lake Constance region as a holiday destination for nature lovers. Not only the Cormorants, but many other bird species such as the Red-crested Pochard, Marsh Harrier and the Black Kite, will suffer as a consequence of such actions. Your planned searchlight attack will affect them adversely as well.

It is hard to believe that your authority actually plans to commit such as destructive act, not only in a national nature reserve but in a European Special Protected Area (SPA). This is contrary not only to common sense, but also contravenes European bird protection legislation. The interests of a minority - hobby anglers and a few local commercial fishermen - must not be allowed to override the rights of residents, nature lovers and the natural world itself.

I therefore demand respectfully that you cancel your plans to persecute the Cormorants in the Radolfzeller Aachried, the only colony on the German shores of Lake Constance.

Yours sincerely,

(Name and address)

 
Last updated on:

© Proact 2000 - 2007