The Environment Chronicle

The Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (BfS) is the German Federal Authority for Radiation Protection. The BfS was established on 1 November 1989. The site of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection is Salzgitter. The Bfs is supervised by the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). BfS works for the safety and protection of man and the environment against damages due to ionising and non-ionising radiation.

Within the portfolio of the Home Affairs Minister, an independent federal authority is set up, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection. The act was last amended on 6.4.1998.

BUND presents its first BUNDruf, a professional information and advertising campaign to find sponsors and attract donations. This campaign has the topic tropical rain forests.

The Waste Oil Ordinance (Altölverordnung) prescribes conditions for reprocessing, lays down provisions for monitoring and specifies requirements for the return of used combustion engine and gear oils. For the first time, a product group is subject to provisions stipulating that manufacturers remain responsible for their product after it has become waste.

Greenpeace sets up its own station in the Antarctic, to research environmental damage from geological exploration and economic use.

BUND initiates and coordinates an international initiative on butterflies.

After the reactor disaster at Chernobyl and other considerations, Germany creates an independent Federal Ministry for the Environment.

The idea of creating an archive for environmental specimens was first proposed by German and American scientists in the early 1970s. Experts in various scientific disciplines got together for informal discussions, leading to the first international conferences held in 1977 and 1978 to define a concept for environmental specimen banking and to agree on the choice of bioindicators. The feasibility of setting up an environmental specimen bank was finally demonstrated by a pilot project launched in 1979. This was followed by the creation of the human specimen archive at the University of Münster in late 1980. Trial operations of the environmental specimen bank started in May 1981 at the Research Centre Jülich. The pilot project was so successful that the BMI decided to set up a national environmental specimen bank as a permanent national institution, to be co-ordinated by the German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), with effect from January 1985. In 1986, overall responsibility was transferred to the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).The Federal Environmental Agency (UBA) is responsible for the administration and co-ordination, the central data maintenance and the assessment. Currently six external institutions support the UBA in different tasks.

BUND's youth section, BUNDjugend, is founded in Bad Ems.

The DBV founds a separate youth group, "DBV-Jugend", in 1987, the group is renamed Naturschutzjugend im DBV".

In 1982 a dozen environmentalists, inspired by the legend of Robin Hood, formed ROBIN WOOD, "the avengers of the defoliated", dedicated to non-violent direct action to protect the forests. The society now has c. 2,300 members and is supported primarily by volunteers. Its core issues are acid rain, destruction of the rain forests, energy waste, waste management and traffic policy.