The competition “German Capital of Biodiversity” is organised by Deutsche Umwelthilfe (German Environmental Aid - DUH) and will start in July 2010. All municipalities, from rural villages to large cities, are invited to participate. To ensure a fair competition, all towns and cities will be grouped according to their size: Towns below 10,000 inhabitants, between 10,000 and 30,000, 30,000 to 100,000 as well as cities above 100.000 inhabitants.

All municipalities will have four months to fill in a questionnaire by means of which the winners of each category will be selected. The best municipality will also be awarded the “German Capital of Biodiversity” (Bundeshauptstadt der Biodiversität).

The questionnaire contains four main topics: ‘Green in the city’, ‘Biodiversity protection’, ‘Water bodies, agriculture and forestry’ as well as ‘Organisation, communication and cooperation’. Within these topics, municipalities can demonstrate their strategies and actions for biodiversity by answering a number of questions and presenting related projects. In addition to the above categories, we also ask municipalities to describe their actions in local environmental justice, i.e. projects that tackle both biodiversity and social challenges simultaneously.

In the implementation the competition, DUH will ask for the support of municipality federations, environmental organisations, national agencies and selected local authorities.

For more information on the German competition please click here: http://www.duh.de/2083.html.