To the Minister of Environment of the Federal State of Lower Saxony
To the Minister of Environment of the Federal Republic of Germany
The International Mire Conservation Group (IMCG) is a worldwide organisation of mire (peatland) specialists etc. etc.
In Germany most of the bog-landscapes are situated in the federal state of Lower Saxony (Northwest Germany). This state acknowledges its high responsibility for mire protection and has therefore in 1981 adopted a Mire Conservation Programme. Lower Saxony has since gained international respect for its consequent legal protection of complete peatland complexes, including rewetted areas, peat mining areas, and nature-like bog-remnants.
The Esterweger Dose is the largest bog complex in Lower Saxony. It is well known for its tragic history in the 1930s and 1940s when the fascist nazi-regime established a concentration camp in the nearby Esterwegen. The area is a classical site of mire study as it was the last extensive near-natural bog site of Northern Germany and a nature reserve since 1937. The largely state-owned area was, however, sacrificed to peat extraction at the end of the 1950’s. The last near-natural parts were destroyed in the 1980s.
But still this complex has an enormous importance for mire conservation because of its potential to re-establish bog-like conditions over huge areas. The Esterweger Dose is currently the largest bog restoration area of West and Central Europe, with already 2000 ha being rewetted. The licenses for peat extraction prescribe „bog restoration “as after use. Parts of the Esterweger Dose are listed for Natura 2000 as part of the FFH-Programme of the European Union. Furthermore the whole area is listed in Natura 2000 as an Important Bird Area. Its listing in the European Natura 2000 network implies the obligation to provide the essential legal protection to the area.
After the last elections in Lower Saxony in 2003, however, the new Government has stopped the –almost completed - process of designating the Esterweger Dose as a nature reserve. Reacting on lobby from the peat industry, the new Minister of Environment has decided not to designate those parts of the Esterweger Dose that are still used for peat extraction.
This may severely hamper the long-term integrated development of the area as one of the most extensive and most promising bog restoration sites of West and Central Europe. The IMCG recalls that Lower Saxony sold another large and unprotected bog area as a training-centre to Mercedes-Benz by in 1992.
Therefore the IMCG requests the Minister of Environment of Lower Saxony to proceed without delay with the designation of the total Esterweger Dose as a nature reserve and in this way complete the consequent implementation of the Mire Conservation Programme of 1981.
Furthermore the IMCG request the Minister of Environment of the Federal Republic of Germany, who is responsible for the German part of the Natura 2000 – network, to support the conservation of the Esterweger Dose mire complex.
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