WWF takes a close look at the government's soil protection promises - the results are sobering

The new WWF Soil Protection Barometer shows major gaps and deficits in soil protection: of 22 promises in the government program, half are still in red. According to the WWF report, there has been partial success and progress in eleven projects, only two of which are green. The WWF is therefore calling for more speed and an ambitious soil protection strategy.

"The national strategy promised since 2020 must contain binding targets and better measures. So far, it's mainly states like Upper Austria and the Association of Municipalities that have put the brakes on this," criticizes Pories.

Measured in terms of land consumption per day, the German government is currently missing its self-imposed sustainability target of 2.5 hectares by 2030 by a factor of almost five.

The WWF Barometer

The WWF barometer uses a traffic light system to assess the status of the measures promised in the government program that are relevant to soil protection. The assessment shows whether the coalition has fully implemented its projects as announced (green), only partially completed them (yellow) or not yet completed them at all (red).

For example, the "Austria-wide soil protection strategy for more economical land consumption" and the promised "target path to reduce soil consumption to a net 2.5 hectares per day by 2030" are still outstanding.

So far, the draft strategy only provides for vague commitments in this area, although there are already concrete proposals from the Federal Environment Agency. On the other hand, it is positive that the Ministry of the Environment has set up the biodiversity fund as promised and slightly expanded a national park.

The greening of the tax system is still only on yellow in the government's report card. This is because the chosen CO2 price still has too little steering effect and is counteracted by environmentally harmful subsidies of almost six billion euros per year.

"The German government must fundamentally reform the tax and subsidy system in order to curb the many drivers of land consumption. It is completely absurd that environmental destruction is being directly and indirectly promoted with billions," criticizes Simon Pories from WWF.

It is also critical that the new financial equalization has not brought any improvements for soil protection.

"This is a huge missed opportunity. As a result, the municipalities continue to have an incentive to dedicate new building land instead of preserving green spaces. The competition for new specialist stores and business parks on the outskirts of towns will continue," warns Pories.

The promised vacancy management, the strengthening of supra-regional spatial planning and the "priority of redensification over the sealing of green meadows", as provided for in the coalition pact, are still on hold.

Parallel to agricultural production areas, the government program provides for the designation of ecological priority areas - the latter, however, are missing from the draft soil strategy. The promised presentation of a protection concept for alpine open spaces is also still pending.

"Politicians must finally do a better job of protecting these valuable natural jewels from development - both at federal and state level. At the moment, there are good-sounding goals, but in reality they are usually circumvented," says WWF soil protection spokesperson Simon Pories.

Ecologize spatial planning, promote nature conservation

Under the motto "Nature instead of concrete", the WWF is calling for a land protection package from the federal, state and local governments to curb land consumption at all levels. In addition to a binding upper limit, this also requires the ambitious greening of spatial planning. A large-scale nature conservation offensive and the rapid reduction of environmentally harmful subsidies are just as urgent.