• The lawsuit joins similar cases in France and Spain, where NGOs have taken legal action against their governments for failing to protect designated Marine Protected Areas despite EU legislation and international commitments. 

Berlin – The continuous destruction of protected habitats and biodiversity by bottom trawling in the Doggerbank Marine Protected Area is unlawful. Today [18 November], Friends of the Earth Germany, Bund für Umwelt- und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND)filed a lawsuit against the German government to end this harmful activity, which is taking place in a European Marine Protected Area. BUND – a member of Brussels-based marine NGO Seas At Risk, which is supporting the lawsuit – had already lodged an objection to bottom trawling on the Doggerbank in January 2024; after nine months, the German government has now rejected the objection. 

Olaf Bandt, BUND Chairman, said:

“With today’s legal action, we want to fundamentally strengthen European nature conservation law. As long as destructive fishing with bottom trawling is permitted in valuable marine protected areas like the Doggerbank, there is no effective marine protection.” 

The Doggerbank Marine Protected Area is considered to be the ecological heart of the North Sea. However, bottom trawling is threatening and destroying the protected sandbank and its unique biodiversity. Marine Protected Areas are essential to stop the decline of marine species, and EU Member States have been obliged to conserve them since the introduction of the EU Habitats Directive in 1992. The directive creates a network of protected areas, known as Natura 2000 sites, which Member States must manage effectively to achieve specific conservation objectives and protect Europe’s precious biodiversity. 

Additionally, the international community agreed to effectively protect 30 percent of the world’s marine area under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022 – a target further supported by the EU and its Member States, including Germany, through the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the EU Marine Action Plan.  

However, Germany is not adhering to this obligation. In recent years, bottom trawling has destroyed half of Germany’s protected areas. With the beginning of industrialisation, marine biodiversity has declined dramatically. Despite presenting themselves as global leaders in environmental protection, the EU and its Member States continue to use any possible loophole in EU laws, including the Habitats Directive, to allow destructive activities without restraint: a recent study of seven EU Member States, for instance, which was co-authored by Seas At Risk and Oceana, with contributions from BUND, found that bottom trawling still takes place in 90 percent of the EU’s offshore so-called ‘protected’ areas in investigated countries. This amounts to more than 730,000 hours of bottom towed fishing in German marine Natura 2000 sites between 2015 and 2023. Public opinion strongly opposes allowing this harmful fishing practice, with 82 percent of German citizens supporting stricter regulations on bottom trawling. 

Legal representative Dr. Anna von Rebay, Ocean Vision Legal, said:

“At the beginning of this year, we filed an objection against Germany’s annual fishing authorisation, which unlawfully permits bottom trawling in the Doggerbank Marine Protected Area. The German government issued this license without conducting the mandatory impact assessment required by EU nature conservation law to ensure compatibility with the conservation objectives of the Doggerbank, prior to issuing the authorisation. By challenging Germany’s ongoing refusal to conduct such impact assessments for fisheries, this lawsuit seeks to reinforce the implementation of European nature conservation law and establish a precedent for all EU Member States.”  

Tatiana Nuño, Senior Marine Policy Officer at Seas At Risk, said:

“It is a problem we see systematically in EU Member States: Marine Protected Areas lack effective management plans to ensure their protection. The European Commission has called on Member States to ban bottom trawling in Marine Protected Areas, but we are not seeing the necessary action. Lawsuits like these will become increasingly common from civil society to make sure that, when it comes to Europe’s precious marine heritage, protected means protected.” 

This litigation is part of a pan-European project to deliver real protection and effective management of EU Marine Protected Areas, co-led by Seas At Risk and Oceana, with legal support from ClientEarth, and legal representation in Germany by Ocean Vision Legal.  

ENDS 

Notes to editors: 

  • BUND stands for Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation). BUND is the German member of Friends of the Earth and is an independent, federal NGO that has been dedicated to protecting nature and the environment since the mid-1970s. With over 670,000 members and supporters, 16 state organisations and 2,300 local and regional groups, BUND is one of the largest environmental associations in Germany today. 
  • Seas At Risk is a Brussels-based NGO campaigning for the protection and restoration of the marine environment. Together with its 30+ members from all over Europe, it works to make sure that life in our seas and oceans is abundant, diverse, climate-resilient, and not threatened by human activities.  
  • Ocean Vision Legal is the first international law firm dedicated to Ocean Protection and its intersections with climate and human rights law. Its mission is to save the Ocean through law. It takes direct legal actions to hold actors accountable and to enforce Ocean protection obligations (Ocean Litigation), advocates for new laws that acknowledge the intrinsic value of the Ocean (Ocean Rights) and provides pro bono consultancy for coastal and oceanic communities, who are most affected by the adverse impact of human activity on the ocean (Ocean Guardianship). 
  • Oceana is the largest international advocacy organisation focused entirely on “ocean conservation”. Since its founding in 2001, Oceana seeks to make our oceans more biodiverse and abundant by winning policy victories in the countries that govern much of the world’s marine life. Oceana in Europe has offices in Madrid, Brussels, and Copenhagen.  
  • ClientEarth is a non-profit organisation that uses the law to create systemic change that protects the Earth for – and with – its inhabitants. It is tackling climate change, protecting nature and stopping pollution, with partners and citizens around the globe. It holds industry and governments to account, and defends everyone’s right to a healthy world. From its offices in Europe, Asia and the USA it shapes, implements and enforces the law, to build a future for our planet in which people and nature can thrive together. 

Posted on: 18 November 2024