Ministry for Climate Protection, Agriculture, Rural Areas and the Environment

The Ministry for Climate Protection, Agriculture, Rural Areas and the Environment of the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is well-known for wonderful natural landscapes and an abundance of species. It is proud of its modern agriculture, rural traditions and healthy food. The Ministry for Climate Protection, Agriculture, Rural Areas and the Environment regards itself as responsible for preserving and sustainably further developing these hallmarks.

Climate protection is of special importance and plays a predominant role in all the Ministry’s tasks and areas of responsibility. Everyone bears responsibility for contributing something to climate protection and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is also determined to shoulder this responsibility.

The State government published its first climate protection concept in 1997. The funding guideline for climate protection was set up at the same time to implement the intended tasks it contained. This still serves as an important and successful instrument of the State in climate protection matters today. Meanwhile, more than 130 successful climate protection projects which were developed by the State, municipalities and private initiators and which serve as models for new initiatives within the seven areas of action have been presented in the climate protection action plan. Climate protection initiatives are constantly being developed further and regularly supplemented and evaluated together with associations, organisations and State institutions.

In the medium term, the State government also wishes to initiate climate protection legislation. It will start an extensive substantive and political participation process for this because climate protection can only effectively succeed if people can participate.

Agriculture as a structure-determining and multifunctional economic sector has lastingly shaped the cultural landscape in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Agriculture, forestry and the food industry decisively determine economic development more than in any other Federal State. Innovative, sustainable and resource-conserving land cultivation is therefore the aim and at the same time the benchmark for the Ministry’s work. This includes competitive businesses which secure jobs and form the basis for a successful food industry. Creative and innovative instruments to make rural areas attractive and worth living in are especially important in areas with low population density and high demographic change. Investments in facilities providing basic services, rural road construction, village renewal, tourism – the diversity of measures is appropriate to achieve this aim in a wide variety of areas.

High quality of living for the rural population and guests also includes the protection of natural areas and landscapes which make our State unique. A comparison of numerous superlatives within Germany illustrates this. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has more than 2,000 lakes, a coastline around 2,000 km in length, 3 national parks, 3 biosphere reservations, 7 nature reserves, 2 UNESCO world natural heritage forests, the Ivenack Oaks as the first national natural monument and more than a third of its surface area is protected. This is both a responsibility and an incentive for the Ministry’s work and is expressed in a broad, ambitious range of duties.

“Mecklenburg-Vorpommern - Best of Northern Germany“ thus also means that the health of consumers and food and feed safety meet the highest standards in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

“Water means life“ – this ancient insight is more relevant than ever today. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is one of the Federal States with the greatest number of bodies of water. The co-ordination and balancing of the various competing claims to use and the sustainable protection of this natural resource are the task of water management and the Ministry as the State’s supreme water authority. Specifically, this involves groundwater protection, a safe drinking water supply, water pollution control and also coastal and flood protection.

The Ministry with its subordinate authorities is also responsible for soil and air protection. This includes all immission protection issues with the monitoring and securing of air quality within the State. A major topic is the licensing and monitoring of facilities which can cause particularly harmful effects for the environment such as harmful air immissions, noise which is detrimental to health or unpleasant smells due to their nature or their operation. The licensing requirement for industrial facilities such as wind turbines, livestock farming or biogas plants complies with the ordinance on facilities requiring approval. There are currently approximately 4,840 such facilities requiring immission protection approval in operation in the State.

Monitoring existing facilities involves checking compliance with requirements which result from national and European law. The Federal Immission Control Act and the ordinances issued on the basis of the Act as well as the Industrial Emissions Directive or the Seveso III Directive determine the manner of monitoring and inspections for the facilities/businesses they are responsible for in detail. A core component of the Industrial Emissions Directive is the strengthening of the binding character of the European State of Technology (BVT). In facility approval law, BVT designates the concept of the best available technology.

In addition, the department is responsible for supervising waste management in MV which is constantly developing in the direction of a recycling economy. Waste disposal sites will, however, still be needed in future as not all waste can be reused or recycled. Five waste disposal sites are currently being operated in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The Ministry works closely with the police and other waste authorities in order to effectively prevent illegal waste disposal and transport.

The restructuring and thus stabilisation of the fishing industry as a traditional economic branch of the State is also one of the Ministry’s permanent tasks in view of falling fishing quotas.

Veterinary services, including animal protection and combatting animal diseases, are topics which are integrated into the overall strategy of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s Ministry for Climate Protection, Agriculture, Rural Areas and the Environment.

Minister for Climate Protection, Agriculture, Rural Areas and the Environment Dr. Till Backhaus