Curriculum Vitae
Josef Göppel
Josef Göppel was born on 16 August 1950 on a small farm in the Franconian village of Rauenzell near Ansbach. He grew up with a strong attachment to the land and became a forester. He worked as a forestry engineer for 28 years – mostly outdoors. Göppel is married and has four daughters.
In 1972, he became involved in the local politics of his home region. After eight years in the Bavarian State Parliament, he was elected directly to the German Bundestag in 2002. All his political activities focus on living and working in harmony with nature.
Göppel has been the head of the CSU’s environmental working group since 1991, and has played a significant role in shaping the party’s environmental platform. Within the party, he has a reputation as a sometimes difficult and persistent unconventional thinker. The media regard him as the green conscience of his party.
As a forestry engineer, in 1986 he founded the Land Care Association of Middle Franconia. His aim was to overcome the bitter divisions that existed at that time between environmentalists and farmers. The initiative became a success, and today there are 155 Land Care Associations in 14 German Länder, with equal representation of farmers, conservationists and local politicians. Göppel has been head of the German Association for Landcare since 1993. The network Landcare Europe was founded at EU level in 2016.
In the mid-90s he joined the International Eco-Social Forum and worked on the Global Marshall Plan Initiative.
In 2005 he founded the Renewable Energies Network in the Middle Franconia region together with business representatives, craftspeople and scientists. In 2014 this led to the creation of the Franconia Regional Electricity cooperative, which aims to sell electricity directly to those in the immediate vicinity of the production sites.
He stood firmly by Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015, when her generous policy of receiving Syrian refugees came under harsh criticism from the CDU and CSU.
A key cross-party initiative in the German Bundestag can be traced back to Göppel: members of government and opposition parties joined forces in the Future Forum on the Environment, where they made the case for more sustainable environmental policies.
In the Bundestag elections, Göppel’s personal votes have far surpassed the second votes for his party every time; in 2013, the figures stood at 53.3 percent to 47.6 percent.
An outsider’s view proves revealing – the following text appeared in the local press after an appearance at the Nürnberger Presseclub:
"Göppel is a true conservative. He wants nothing more than to preserve creation. The CSU Member of the Bundestag approaches politics through the lenses of his Christian faith and his long experience working with nature. He has been known to get on the wrong side of people, whether it be his fellow party members or supporters of conventional growth policies. He was the only member of the CSU to vote against generating electricity from nuclear power in Germany long before the start of the energy transition."
Political Career
•1972-2004 Herrieden town council
•1974-1994 Middle Franconia District Council
•since 1991 Chairman of the CSU environmental working group
•1986 founded the first Land Care Association
•1994-2002 Bavarian State Parliament
•since 1996 Ansbach county council
•since 2002 German Bundestag
Farmers and conservationists are working together in Europe
New alliance Landcare Europe
Brussels, 6 February 2017 - A new alliance of farmers, conservationists and local politicians wants to reward farmers' environmental performance better in rural areas of Europe, stabilize biodiversity and strengthen social cohesion. The initiative "Landcare Europe" has been based so far in the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Austria, Romania, Spain, Luxembourg and Scotland. Representatives from these countries have now presented their goals to MEPs, Commission officials and representatives of the Union in Brussels. According to Josef Göppel, chairman of the German Association for Landcare and member of the German Bundestag, the initiative is intended to strengthen the pro-European forces.
The key feature of Landcare Europe is the equal and voluntary cooperation of farmers with environmental associations and local politicians in rural regions. Farmers are given more support in the population and the conservationists reach a consensus with the land-users much more than in the dispute. In particular, the pasture management with cattle and sheep as well as the re-creation of hedges, buffer zones, boundary ridges or fallow grounds are supported. Landcare wants to allure the farmers with a change of view in the agricultural promotion. So far, minimum ecological requirements are a prerequisite for standard payments. In future, every farmer should be able to decide individually how much he wants to do beyond nature's legal requirements. The more ecological services it offers, the higher its funding from European treasury.
The initiators of Landcare Europe are confident that their model will have a majority. In any case, the French Ministry of Agriculture has already written to the European Agricultural Council in a strategy paper: "We must continue to take into account the added value for society and the environment, which does not appear in the operating manuals." Josef Göppel considers this to be the decisive prerequisite , in order to finally allow the owners of the Natura 2000 network to receive a fair compensation for their welfare benefits.
Invitation 6th February 2017 in the Bavarian Representation in Brussels.
Landcare Europe presented a new model “Public Goods Premium” for the CAP past 2020 and our ideas on the further development of Landcare Europe to reach European Goals for our cultural landscapes together with our European farmers.