Overview
- Farm leader Henrik Wendorff called beaver meat “an attractive food,” while the farmers’ association presses for population management that could include hunting.
- Federal Agriculture Minister Alois Rainer has questioned the species’ special protection and called for an EU-level review.
- Current law keeps beavers strictly protected, allowing removals only by permit in exceptional cases; meat and pelts may be used privately, but restaurant sales are not allowed.
- Recent permitted removals cited risks at Oder flood dikes and a clogged drainage channel near Berlin Brandenburg Airport, with farm groups reporting roughly 200 animals shot annually.
- Conservation groups NABU and BUND reject any downgrade in protection and advocate preventive measures such as drain pipes in dams, tree guards and wider riparian buffers.