BMUB: "Bonn Challenge" to rebuild forests has been achieved

A total of 150 million hectares of destroyed forest to be rebuilt

An important milestone in the Federal Environment Ministry's international nature conservation and climate protection policy has been reached. The so-called "Bonn Challenge" initiated by Germany to rebuild forests has succeeded in getting countries to pledge a total of 150 million hectares. The goal was reached yesterday at the first Bonn Challenge regional conference for Asia in Palembang, Indonesia. There, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka announced further contributions to forest reconstruction. In Bonn in 2011, on Germany's initiative, numerous countries agreed to restore 150 million hectares of destroyed forests worldwide by 2020.

Environment State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth, who attended the conference on behalf of Germany, congratulated Alex Noerdin, Governor of South Sumatra Province and host of the regional conference: "The Bonn Challenge has created incredible global momentum for forest restoration. When we launched the Bonn Challenge in 2011, no one could have imagined that we would reach the 150 million hectare target three years ahead of schedule. The encouragement that countries in the region here in Palembang have given to the Bonn Challenge, and that they are also using it for their national initiatives, shows that in 2011 we kicked off a groundbreaking development for global forest restoration with the Bonn Challenge."

Further information about the Bonn Challenge can be found at
www.bonnchallenge.org/content/challenge

Source: BMUB press release, 11.05.2017

Keywords: Stakeholders, Greening / climate adaptation, Soil & land consumption, Wood construction, Climate protection, News Blog Europe (without DE), Environmental policy, Ecology

Published 13 November 2020

"Who owns the city?" New study on real estate ownership in Berlin

Half of the city of Berlin belongs to multimillionaires. This is the conclusion of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation's current study entitled "Who owns the city? Analysis of owner groups and their business practices on the Berlin real estate market".

This is the first systematic evaluation of property ownership in Berlin and the various business models behind it. It opens the black box of large private property owners, about whom little has been known until now. The study describes hitherto unknown owners with more than 3,000 apartments as well as those who are below this threshold and about whom little is known so far.

"The study dispels the myth of the nice little private landlord as the main player in the real estate market, as well as the myth that selling condominiums to owner-occupants under current conditions contributes to social security and affordable housing," says study author Christoph Trautvetter, head of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation's "Who owns the city?" project.

The uninterrupted price increases on the housing market bring the owners immense unearned returns of sometimes more than 20 percent a year. The study also compares business figures and practices of listed housing companies with their state-owned and cooperative counterparts.

"The sell-out of the city continues, although politically, especially by the Red-Red-Green Party, it is being resisted: for example, through the municipal right of first refusal, but also through the scandalisation of share deals and initiatives for more transparency. In the real estate market, both financial resources and access to information are very unevenly distributed. With its study on the disclosure of the ownership of real estate in Berlin, the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung is doing important political education work and is thus providing actors with the tools they need to inform themselves and defend themselves against the sell-off of their city," says Daniela Trochowski, executive director of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.

The trial will be held on November 10, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. via Livestream will be presented. Participants: Christoph Trautvetter (author of the study, project leader "RLS-Cities - Who owns the city?"), Daniela Trochowski (executive director of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation), Carsten Schatz (co-chair of the parliamentary group DIE LINKE in the Berlin House of Representatives), Rouzbeh Taheri (representative of the IniForum Berlin and spokesperson for "Expropriating Deutsche Wohnen and Co"). Stefan Thimmel (Housing and Urban Policy Officer at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation) will moderate.

Tenants can also contact www.wemgehoertdiestadt.de can dive into the data of the research with just a few clicks. The website contains further data on the owners presented in the study and on more than two hundred other players in the Berlin real estate market. It thus makes it easier for tenants to search for further clues about the homeowners on the basis of their address or the company they know.

Source: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation PM of 10.11.2020

Keywords:
Stock, DE-News, Research, New books and studies, News Blog Berlin, Affordable housing, City, Housing, Housing policy

BMUB: "Bonn Challenge" for the reconstruction of forests has been achieved

A total of 150 million hectares of destroyed forest to be rebuilt

Yesterday, the Agency for Renewable Energies awarded the Rhine-Hunsrück District as Energy Municipality of the Decade / Environment and Energy Minister Ulrike Höfken congratulates warmly on this award.