Jonas Rüffer

Citizen Science – Citizen research with dogs

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding 15 new citizen science projects, including one UfU project. Citizen science projects aim to encourage citizens to conduct research. Together with the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research and Wildlife Detection Dogs e. V., UfU will carry out a project to search for and identify invasive plant and animal species. The special feature: Dog owners are to learn how to find and identify these species with their dogs. Invasive and alien species can cause massive damage to fragile flora and fauna. As these species are alien, they often spread rapidly and displace native species. This can lead not only to problems for the protection and conservation of native flora and fauna, but also to problems for the economy and the health of the population in the new areas of occurrence. The occurrence of these species should be better monitored in future. The numerous dog owners in Germany should help with this. There are now around 9.6 million dogs (2018) in Germany. These animals are not only great companions but also excellent sniffers. Research has shown that dogs are not only better at finding these invasive species than humans, but that the error rate when identifying them is lower in dogs. This is because humans confuse the species too often. The Wildlife Detection Dogs association will be responsible for training the dogs and dog owners. The Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research will be responsible for mapping and geostatistical analysis, among other things. UfU is managing the project and will be responsible for implementing participatory formats for the citizen scientists.

Lack of public participation in infrastructure projects!

Ten years after Stuttgart 21 – UfU is conducting an extensive study into the possibilities of public participation in infrastructure projects. According to EU law, environmentally relevant infrastructure projects must be listed in so-called EIA portals. The result: in 2018, there were around 2,000 planned projects for which the opportunity for public participation would have been mandatory. In fact, only 190 projects were listed in the relevant federal and state EIA portals. This result is devastating in that not only is current EU law being broken, but the acceptance of these projects among citizens is also suffering. The protests against Stuttgart 21 and against the expansion of the A49 in Hesse show that the public wants to have a say in such projects. On December 29, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on our investigation in the article “Little learned from Stuttgart 21”. UfU has summarized the results of the study in a background paper (German only). The full report can be found on the project page. UfU is organizing a digital symposium on this topic in March 2021. Click here for the press release (German only). You can find the full monitoring report here (German only).

Third Aarhus Workshop on „How could access to justice at European Union level be improved?”

Almost three dozen Aarhus-interested participants from environmental associations, the legal profession and specialised lawyers took part in the third Aarhus Workshop on 17 November 2020. Sebastian Bechtel, environmental democracy lawyer for ClientEarth Brussels, introduced the Workshop with two intriguing presentations on the challenging questions: “What is wrong with access to justice in the European Union?” and “Does the Amendment to the Aarhus Regulation help?”. Two panel discussions with Aarhus experts from Germany, Portugal and Slovenia ­ the EU countries which are currently sharing the Trio Council Presidency till the end of 2021 ­ further elaborated on access to justice hurdles and identified concrete areas for improvement. Dr Raphael Weyland, Head of Brussels Office at Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU); Catarina Grilo, PhD, Director of Conservation and Policy at ANP in association with WWF; and Senka Šifkovi Vrbica, legal expert at PIC Slovenia, shared their hands-on experience around accessing European and Member State courts. Dr Maria Alexandra de Sousa Aragão, Professor at University of Coimbra; Dr Vasilka Sancin, Associate Professor at University of Ljubljana and Director of Centre for International and Business Law; as well as Sebastian Bechtel, discussed with the participants how access to justice at European Union level could be further strengthened.

A joint position paper was developed during the third Aarhus Workshop. The “German Portuguese Slovenian Civil Society Declaration on Access to Justice for Citizens & NGOs at European Union Level” can be found here.

For any questions, please contact us: kathleen.pauleweit@ufu.de

The workshop is part of the project “European Implementation of the Aarhus Convention in the Digital Age (EU-AarKo)” of the Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU e.V.). This project is funded by the German Environment Agency (UBA) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety within the framework of the sponsorship of environmental associations.

For more information about this project and its background, click here.

Third Aarhus workshop on “How can access to justice be improved at EU level?”

Around 30 people interested in Aarhus from environmental associations, the legal community and specialized lawyers took part in the third Aarhus workshop on 17 November 2020. Sebastian Bechtel, environmental democracy lawyer at ClientEarth Brussels, kicked off the workshop with two informative presentations on the following challenging questions: “What has gone wrong with access to justice at EU level so far?” and “Will the proposed amendment to the Aarhus Regulation remedy the situation?” In two panel discussions with Aarhus experts from Germany, Portugal and Slovenia, the EU countries currently holding the Trio Presidency of the Council of the European Union until the end of 2021, the obstacles to access to justice were identified and concrete areas for improvement were outlined. Dr. Raphael Weyland, Head of the Brussels office of Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU), Dr. Catarina Grilo, Director of Nature Conservation and Policy at ANP in cooperation with WWF Portugal, and Senka Šifkovi Vrbica, employee at PIC Slovenia, shared their practical experiences on access to European and national courts. Dr. Maria Alexandra de Sousa Aragão, Professor at the University of Coimbra, Dr. Vasilka Sancin, Professor at the University of Ljubljana and Director of the Centre for International and Economic Law, and Sebastian Bechtel discussed with the participants how access to justice can be further strengthened at EU level. A joint position paper was drawn up during the third Aarhus workshop. The “German Portuguese Slovenian Civil Society Declaration on Access to Justice for Citizens & NGOs at European Union Level” can be found here (will be submitted later). If you have any questions, please contact: kathleen.pauleweit@ufu.de The workshop discussion is part of the project “European Implementation of the Aarhus Convention in the Digital Age (EU-AarKo)” of the Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU e.V.). This project is funded by the Federal Environment Agency and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety as part of the funding for associations. Further information on this project and its background can be found here.

Maintaining environmental standards and yet planning faster: recommendations from environmental associations for effective acceleration of planning

Together with other environmental associations and the umbrella organization of environmental associations DNR, UfU publishes recommendations for action to accelerate planning. Accelerating the planning process for major infrastructure projects is an important issue that has occupied politicians and associations for over 30 years. The environmental associations repeatedly emphasize that accelerating infrastructure planning is desirable in principle. But not at the expense of environmental standards. For this reason, the environmental associations have drawn up concrete recommendations for action and proposals to speed up the planning of infrastructure projects and at the same time maintain environmental standards. The paper is available as a PDF download here (German only).