Activities
The association is consulted on interventions in nature – from ploughing a protected orchid meadow to designating new construction areas to planning approval for an airport – and is therefore required to write expert statements. This work is mainly carried out by volunteer members with the relevant expertise, and in some cases by the association's employees.
Many members are appointed (on a voluntary basis) to the Nature Conservation Advisory Council at the district, state or federal level.
Local groups maintain local biotopes, pass on their knowledge through guided tours and lead children's groups.
BUND provides information material in the form of brochures, arguments, background reports and studies.
The BUND is a member of the Grüner Strom Label e. V., which awards the seal of approval of the same name for green electricity.
The BUND is co-organiser of the demonstrations under the slogan Wir haben es satt! (We've had enough!).
The BUND is heavily involved in the debate on final storage and has a member on the Commission on the Storage of High-Level Radioactive Waste.
1978: Save the Birds campaign; presentation of the first German solar-powered car.
1981: First public reference to forest dieback.
1988: Garden without Poison campaign.
1989: The Green Belt Germany project protects biotopes along the former German-German border.
1994: Publication of the first environmental computer list.
1995: Publication of the study Zukunftsfähiges Deutschland with Misereor.
2001: BUND, Deutsche Bahn, Naturschutzbund Deutschland, the World Wildlife Fund and Verkehrsclub Deutschland launched the Destination Nature campaign in April.
2003: The magazine GEO and BUND jointly organised the fifth GEO Day of Biodiversity in the Green Belt of Germany. In 24 hours, 500 experts mapped more than 5,200 different animal and plant species, including some that were previously considered extinct.
2004: BUND presented its largest species conservation programme to date, the Wildcat Rescue Network. According to the 'Wildcat Trail Plan' presented, existing forests with wildcat populations throughout Germany are to be connected by a 20,000-kilometre network of bush and tree corridors.
2005: BUND launched the Butterfly Adventure campaign together with ZDF and the UFZ–Umweltforschungszentrum Leipzig-Halle (UFZ–Environmental Research Centre Leipzig-Halle). (since 2006: Abenteuer Faltertage).
2005: The BUNDstiftung (BUND Foundation) was established.
2006: The action alliance Future instead of lignite was founded with citizens' initiatives and other environmental associations.
2007: BUND protested with the newspaper Kohle-Express against the construction of more than 20 new coal-fired power plants in Germany and the expansion of lignite mining.
2007: The Adbusting competition denounced car manufacturers BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen for advertising fuel-guzzling cars, contrary to their promises.
2008: Together with consumers and supported by Sarah Wiener, BUND launched its campaign For the love of nature. Without genetic engineering calling on Edeka to label relevant products with the label Without genetic engineering.
2010: BUND Hamburg co-initiated a popular initiative aimed at re-municipalising the energy networks and establishing 'genuine' municipal utilities in Hamburg. The initiative, which comprised 24 organisations, succeeded in bringing about a referendum in 2013.
2010: The campaign Future without toxins aims to ensure that children grow up without exposure to harmful chemicals. Daycare centres can have dust samples from their facilities tested for plasticisers free of charge by BUND. Certain chemical pollutants have a hormonal effect and are suspected of causing infertility, diabetes and cancer.
2011: Launch of the Wildkatzensprung (Wild cat jump) project (funded by the Federal Biological Diversity Programme) with activities to protect wildcats in ten federal states. In the largest single project in the history of BUND, so-called 'green corridors' are being planted in Hesse (Rothaargebirge-Knüll), Lower Saxony (Harz-Solling), Baden-Württemberg (Herrenberg region), Rhineland-Palatinate (Westerwald/Taunus-Rothaargebirge) and Thuringia (Greiz region). In addition, a nationwide genetic database on wildcats is being developed in cooperation with the Senckenberg Research Institute to document populations and migration patterns and optimise conservation measures for wildcats. With over 1,200 volunteers, the project is also one of the largest 'citizen science' projects in Europe and was successfully completed in 2017.
2012: The Urban Nature Campaign provided information about plants and animals in the city and encouraged people to experience and create natural spaces themselves, e.g. through urban gardening and a photo competition.
2012: With Stellen Sie die Giftfrage (Ask the poison question), BUND called on consumers to ask product suppliers about hazardous ingredients (see REACH Regulation). In cooperation with the Federal Environment Agency, a request generator makes it easier to formulate questions.
2013: With the launch of the app ToxFox, BUND enables consumers to scan the barcode of cosmetics to see whether the product contains hormone-disrupting chemicals. Since 2019, nanoparticles have also been displayed. Alternatively, the EAN number can simply be entered online for the cosmetics check, and protest emails can be sent directly to the manufacturers. The analysis of the chemicals from the INCI list of ingredients for around 60,000 care and cosmetic products was carried out in collaboration with the community database Codecheck.info. The study was criticised by the German Cosmetic, Toiletry, Perfumery and Detergent Association, which claimed that the quantities of potentially harmful ingredients were too low. On the other hand, natural cosmetics were largely free of hormone-active substances.
2013: The Wild bees action informed the public about the importance of and threats to the more than 550 species of wild bees in Germany and provided tips on how to help wild bees.
2014: BUND published the shopping guide Microplastics – the invisible danger, sparking a public debate about microplastics in cosmetics and their entry into the oceans and rivers.
2015: The magazine GEO and BUND jointly organised the GEO Day of Biodiversity in the Hohen Garbe on the Elbe, the adjacent Garbe polder and the Aland lowlands. In 24 hours, experts mapped more than 1,400 plant and animal species, including a fungus species found in Germany for the first time.
2018: On 23 November 2018, BUND and the Solarenergie-Förderverein Deutschland (Solar Energy Promotion Association Germany), together with eleven individuals (including Josef Göppel, Hannes Jaenicke and Volker Quaschning), filed a constitutional complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG). This first lawsuit of its kind is intended to increase the pressure on politicians to do more to combat climate change.
2024: Constitutional complaint ('Constitutional Complaint 2.0') against the Klimaschutzgesetz (Climate Protection Act); BUND together with the Solar Energy Promotion Association Germany
