Administrative Court - Otter killings still banned for the time being
The Bavarian Administrative Court has provisionally suspended two ordinances on the killing of strictly protected otters in exceptional cases. "Otters may therefore not be killed by way of exception for the time being", the court announced in Munich on Thursday. The ordinances are presumably unlawful and therefore null and void. The court thus granted the urgent applications of three environmental associations.
Otters, which are strictly protected under species protection law, may only be killed under special conditions. These exceptions have been regulated in Bavaria since August by the two ordinances that have now been suspended. Accordingly, otters may be killed under certain conditions to protect pond farming in Lower Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate, with the exception of the district of Neumarkt. To this end, the State Institute for Agriculture determines an annual maximum number of animals to be killed; most recently there was a quota of 32 animals.
However, the Administrative Court has now ruled that the content of both regulations is unlawful. It violated both the requirements of the Federal Nature Conservation Act and constitutional provisions to transfer the decision on the number of permitted culls to the State Institute. The maximum number of killings is so important for the protection of species that it must be regulated by the legislator itself. In addition, the amendment of one of the two ordinances was already null and void for formal reasons.
"The decision clearly shows that the conflicts cannot be resolved with a technically and legally questionable shooting ordinance, which only deepens the rifts between nature conservation and pond management and exposes businesses to great legal uncertainty," commented Deutsche Umwelthilfe, one of the three complaining environmental associations. "We need a different approach and other instruments that make it possible for extensive fish farming to coexist with strictly protected species in the aquatic environment."
The environmental associations had filed an application for a judicial review and an urgent appeal against the ordinances. They are now provisionally suspended pending a decision on the main issue. The Administrative Court's decision on Thursday is final.
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- The environmental associations, based in Bavaria, challenged the legality of two ordinances that allow the killing of otters in exceptional cases, specifically in Lower Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate, excluding Neumarkt, at the Bavarian Administrative Court in Munich.
- Following an exceptional case in Munich, the Administrative Court has ruled that these ordinances, which were issued in August, are unlawful and have provisionally suspended their implementation due to violations of the Federal Nature Conservation Act and constitutional provisions.
- The unlawful regulations, which set an annual maximum number of otters that can be killed to protect pond farming, have been criticized by environmental associations as deepening the rifts between nature conservation and pond management and exposing businesses to great legal uncertainty.
- The Administrative Court's decision has created an exceptional case in the protection of otters, a strictly protected species, in Bavaria, and has epitomized the ongoing challenges of balancing economic development with conservation objectives.
Source: www.stern.de
