DLH_Balance_2016_ENG - Additional commitment

104 // Corporate Citizenship Beyond humanitarian emergency aid and the consistent social “help for self-help”, the Lufthansa Group has been committed for decades to the areas of environment, culture and sports. Environmental sponsorship The protection of its heraldic bird, the crane, has been a concern close to the heart of the Lufthansa Group for over 30 years and is an established part of its corporate citizenship commitment. The aviation group was a cofounder of the Crane Protection Germany working group, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2016. Since 1991 it has made signi cant contributions to securing the breeding, resting and gathering areas of the “birds of luck”. Its foundation goes back to a joint initiative involving Lufthansa, Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU) and the environmen- tal foundation WWF Deutschland. Through Crane Protection Germany, the Lufthansa Group supports crane protection projects at home and abroad to prevent the destruc- tion of crane habitats. With its “Cranorama”, the charitable organi- zation has offered a new, barrier-free obser- vation platform since October 2015. Over the past 25 years, about 625,000 bird watchers have visited the Crane Information Center and the neighboring Günzer See. Since 1996, the maximum number of cranes resting each fall in the Darß- Zingst and Rügen regions has increased from 35,000 to 73,000. The number of crane pairs in Germany Number of cranes ringed in Germany and abroad since 1996: 1,500 International cooperations and projects with public administrations and non- governmental organizations Intensive cooperation with numerous crane protection organizations in Working Group) Additional commitment New observation platform “Cranorama” The Crane Information Center, operated by Crane Protection Germany in Groß Mohr- dorf, plays an important role. It allows visitors a nature-friendly way of observing the estimated 125,000 cranes that rest every year in late summer and early fall in the regions around the Darß-Zingst penin- sula and near Rügen to prepare for the continuation of their journey south. Employ- ees of the Lufthansa Group regularly work at the center as volunteer rangers in the area of environmental education. On October 15, 2015, the Crane Informa- tion Center inaugurated the new, barrier- free and weather-protected observation platform “Cranorama” at Günzer See. The educational program is part of the com- bined project “Schatz an der Küste” (“Coastal Treasures”) and receives subsi- dies via Germany’s Federal Agency for Nature Conservation from Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety. www.kraniche.de www.facebook.com/kranichschutz Information about species-appropriate animal transports: www.lufthansa-cargo.com as well as Balance 2015, page 101)

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