National and regional land-use conflicts in Germany from the perspective of stakeholders

Within just a few years, land-use conflicts have become considerably more acute in Germany, mainly due to recent changes in the national energy policy. Land users have become much more aware that land is a limited resource, and this has led to competition among the following land-use sectors: settlements/transportation, agriculture, forestry and conservation. To tackle the conflicts and to develop measures for multifunctional land-use, it is necessary to know about the conflicting issues. Stakeholders involved in land-use decisions are an important source of information that can be used to explore these conflicts. This paper shows and explains recent land-use conflicts based on stakeholder interviews and notes the central land-use conflicts in Germany on national and regional levels. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.