Legal Options for Biodiversity Protection

Since 1992, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has legally enshrined biodiversity protection both internationally and nationally. In Germany, the National Strategy on Biological Diversity (NBS) was adopted as the central instrument for implementing international agreements. However, the majority of the targets set out in this strategy for 2020 have not been sufficiently achieved, and it is clear that national biodiversity protection needs to be improved, particularly at a legal level.

Current developments at EU level must also be considered here. As part of the European Green Deal, a new and ambitious EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 (EU-BDS) was adopted in 2020. In addition to existing legislation (e.g. EU Nature Directives), this is also to be achieved with new developments such as the Nature Restoration Law (NRL). As national and EU law are closely interlinked, especially in environmental law, these developments play a major role in the project.

Oeko-Institut and Ecologic Institute are jointly supporting the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Bundesamt für Naturschutz – BfN) in the necessary further development of environmental legislation at federal level in line with the objectives of the new NBS 2030 and the EU-BDS. The aim of this project is to identify existing deficits in national biodiversity protection and to develop proposals for improvement.

To this end, the international, European and constitutional legal framework for the implementation of the NBS will first be analysed. Based on this, current regulatory gaps will be identified as well as opportunities for improvement. This will lead to concrete reform proposals, including an examination of the advantages of an overarching instrument. In a final step, a new cross-sectoral biodiversity protection law is to be drafted.