Federal Agency for Nature Conservation

The German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (German: Bundesamt für Naturschutz, BfN) is the German government’s scientific authority with responsibility for national and international nature conservation. BfN is one of the government’s departmental research agencies and reports to the German Environment Ministry (BMU).

The Agency provides the German Environment Ministry with professional and scientific assistance in all nature conservation and land management issues and in international cooperation activities. BfN furthers its objectives by carrying out related scientific research and is also in charge of a number of funding programmes.

BfN additionally performs important enforcement work under international agreements on species conservation and nature conservation, the Antarctic Treaty, and the German Genetic Engineering Act.

The diversity of species, habitats and landscapes is critical to human survival. Safeguarding this diversity for the long-term future is an increasingly urgent challenge. It requires approaches that integrate the protection, development and sustainable use of our natural resources with a purposeful, consistent course of action. The Federal Agency for Nature Conservation plays a key part in incorporating scientific knowledge into policy decisions and applying that knowledge in practice. BfN is involved and has links with numerous activities to conserve biodiversity and natural ecosystems in Germany and internationally.

Nature conservation can only succeed in the long run if it enjoys support across the whole of society. The Agency therefore maintains an ongoing dialogue with policymakers, business, the scientific community, educators and the media, constantly adapting the nature conservation toolkit to societal change.

Furnishing the science to underpin policy and administrative decisions is one of BfN’s central tasks. Doing so requires in-depth knowledge of the complex interrelationships in the natural environment and of the short and long-term effects of human activities on ecosystems. It also calls for a thorough grasp of the available options, implementation choices and social and policy needs so that expertise can be provided at the right place in the right form.

Looking to the future is especially important in this regard, because new issues and challenges emerging all the time require a timely response based on scientifically dependable data and knowledge. Topical examples include climate change – which poses huge problems not just for humanity, but for entire regions and much of life on earth – and the sustainable use of renewable energy.

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