We want a real national park!
On the occasion of the hearing on the draft amendment to the Lower Oder Valley National Park Act on September 4th, 2006 in Gartz / O. declared the chairman of the board of the Association of Friends of the German-Polish European National Park Unteres Odertal e. V. Thomas Berg:
“The present draft amendment as well as the drafts for the two ordinances for hunting and fishing must be fundamentally revised if the only Brandenburg National Park is to be a nationally and internationally recognized national park rather than a sham package and a false label.
Specifically, the following changes would be required:
1. If the previous goal of designating half of the national park — over 5,000 hectares — as a total reserve by 2010 and taking it out of use is to be abandoned without replacement and not even postponed to a later specific point in time, then at least in A binding schedule should be set as to when the inlet and outlet structures in the floodpolders will remain open all year round or at least until May 30th of each year, as stipulated in the water study commissioned by the State of Brandenburg. A floodplain national park without water is just perverse. This year, too, the sensational breeding success of the two species of swallow (Black Sea Tern and White-winged Tern) has been almost destroyed by the fact that the Fiddichow Polder (10) has not been stopped pumping. It is only thanks to the committed work of courageous conservationists on site that this did not happen.
2. The economic and tourist activities such as hunting, fishing, fishing, swimming, ice skating, canoeing, looking for berries, etc., which are still permitted in the planned protection zone I (50% of the national park area) must be carried out at a specified time, if not in 2010, then at the latest 2015, regardless of whether the planned Zone I is already formally designated as such or not. Canoe tourism, as beautiful as it is, cannot be accepted in the national park. There are enough suitable canoe routes in Brandenburg.
3. In the planned protection zone II, fishing must be severely restricted in terms of time and space and limited to a few, easily accessible and controllable areas, in particular on the Hohensaaten-Friedrichsthaler Wasserstraße and the Stromoder. In the entire national park, including Zone II, it is not allowed to be fished every year. Night fishing, which is particularly disturbing to the animal world, must also be prohibited without exception in the entire national park.
With the three proposed changes, a national park could be created in the foreseeable future that deserves this name and is recognized both nationally and internationally. It would be a gem for the country, a tourist attraction with economic importance, for the benefit of residents and visitors. ”
Thomas Berg
CEO
