Binz (dpa/mv) - Criticism of the lack of money for nature conservation comes from the municipal level. "Improving biodiversity overwhelms many communities in financial and planning terms," complained Gerlinde Bieker, mayor of Gingst on Rügen, in a statement on Wednesday. "The mostly cash-strapped municipality can only finance the projects through subsidies." Corresponding applications are complex. Even if a project is funded 100 percent, municipalities are often left with planning costs.
Representatives from administration and nature conservation, among others, met in Binz on the island of Rügen for a workshop organized by a nationwide biotope network with model regions on the island of Rügen, in Lower Saxony and Bavaria. Bieker criticized that communities are often required to make a considerable contribution themselves for renaturation projects. "As long as the protection of nature and the environment is not one of the obligatory tasks of a municipality, it will usually lose out in the race for scarce budgetary resources."
