Country info:Germany - organisations

Return to main page for Germany

List of organisations for Germany

Organisation	Web site	Notes
The Federal Environment Ministry	http://www.bmu.de/en/	The Federal Environment Ministry is responsible for the environmental policy of the German government. The aim of policy is to create or maintain a healthy living environment. The ministry is primarily concerned with climate policy, conserving the diversity of fauna and flora, efficient use of resources and energy, as well as protecting people’s health from environmental pressures. Water protection policies in Germany focus primarily on maintaining or re-establishing the ecological balance of water bodies, on guaranteeing drinking and process water supplies and on providing long-term safeguards for all other water uses benefiting the general public. Current water protection policies are in particular aimed at preventing ground and surface water pollution with hazardous substances.
The Federal Agency for Nature Conservation	http://www.bfn.de/index+M52087573ab0.html	The Federal Agency for Nature Conservation is the German government’s scientific authority with responsibility for national and international nature conservation. The Agency plays a key part in incorporating scientific knowledge into policy decisions and applying that knowledge in practice. It provides the German Environment Ministry with professional and scientific assistance in all nature conservation and landscape management issues and in international cooperation activities.
The Federal Institute of Hydrology	http://www.bafg.de/EN/Home/homepage__en__node.html?__nnn=true	Within the federal system of Germany, responsibilities for waters are divided between national authorities and those of the federal states. The Federal Institute of Hydrology is responsible for the German waterways in federal ownership. In this position it has a central mediating and integrating function. The institute is anchored in three scientific divisions: Quantitative hydrology (measures water levels and streamflows, examines the geometry and the morphological conditions of waterways, and studies the interactions between waterways and groundwater); Qualitative hydrology (investigates the release of substances and chemicals into waters and their impacts); Ecology (studies the ecosystems in and along the federal waterways. It explores their composition and develops concepts and measures for ecologically compatible waterway management practices).