Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – The Ministry of the Environment is starting a “fire brigade program” to protect amphibians with the Baden-Württemberg nature conservation associations Bund and Nabu and the amphibian-reptile biotope protection. “Our amphibians in the country are doing dramatically badly. Their population has shrunk massively in recent decades and species that were originally common, such as the common toad or the common frog, are becoming increasingly rare,” said Environment Minister Thekla Walker (Greens) on Wednesday in Stuttgart.
According to Walker, the new program aims to clean up 220 bodies of water in the country. The reasons for the decline in amphibians are well known. “Our amphibians, frogs and toads lack food; their spawning, summer and winter quarters have been cut up. In addition, the intensification of agriculture and forestry and increasing road traffic are threatening them.” But the poor condition of many spawning waters and, for some time now, climate change are also contributing to their decline.
