Country info:Germany - organisations

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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).
The Bavarian Environment Agency	http://www.lfu.bayern.de/index.htm (in German)	The Bavarian Environment Agency is the central technical authority for environmental protection, nature conservation and water management in Bavaria. The agency collects and evaluates data on the state of the environment in Bavaria, provides knowledge and develops strategies and plans for sustainable use and protection of the environment. To ensure a good ecological status of waters, the Agency carries out analyses on chemical and morphological properties, biological quality, and pulls together information on flow regimes and protection measures.
The Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Public Health	http://www.stmug.bayern.de/english/ministry/index.htm	The Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Public Health is responsible for the sustainable protection of man and the essential prerequisites for human life: in other words for the protection of nature and landscapes, soil, water, air and climate, public health and food safety, animal health and the protection of wildlife. The duties of the Bavarian water management authorities consist mainly of protecting water as an integral part of the nature balance and as the habitat of animals and plants, enabling people to use water in a responsible fashion and protecting them against the hazards posed by water.
The Lower Saxony Water Management, Coastal Defence and Nature Conservation Agency	http://www.nlwkn.niedersachsen.de/service/nlwkn_international/information_english/45575.html	The Lower Saxony Water Management, Coastal Defence and Nature Conservation Agency is an amalgamation of different predecessor organisations, and the first of Germany's federal states to consolidate water management and nature conservation in a joint body. The Agency is divided into a number of divisions e.g. operation and maintenance, planning and construction, water and catchment management, nature conservation and hydro-engineering. The water and catchment management division focus on implementing the Water Framework Directive, develop concepts on flood prevention and supervise waste water discharge from trade and industry into surface waters, especially for the catchment areas of the rivers Elbe, Weser and Ems.
The Floodplain Institute Neuberg/Danube	http://www.auenzentrum-neuburg-ingolstadt.de/ (in German)	The Floodplain Institute Neuberg/Danube is a research and information centre concerned mainly with the restoration of the wetland areas located between Neuburg and Ingolstadt along the German Danube. This area hosts one of the largest floodplain dynamics project in central Europe, looking at the past through the present situation to the development of future visions and strategies in the region.
The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research	http://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=11382	The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research studies the complex interactions between humans and the environment in cultivated and damaged landscapes. The Department of River Ecology addresses the ecology as well as the contamination of creeks, rivers and streams. The activities are focussing on the Elbe river catchment area with its tributaries and adjacent floodplains.
The Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries	http://www.igb-berlin.de/igb_homepage.html	The Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries is an independent and interdisciplinary research centre dedicated to the creation, dissemination, and application of knowledge about freshwater ecosystems. Working in close partnership with the scientific community, government agencies and the private sector, guarantees the development of innovative solutions to the most pressing challenges facing freshwater ecosystems and human societies. Furthermore, the unique long-term monitoring and research program at Lakes Mueggel and Stechlin, and the Spree and Tagliamento Rivers is pivotal for understanding and predicting global change impacts on freshwater ecosystems.