Global climate change is reality. The poorest of the poor are already suffering as a result of climate change. Natural resources are becoming scarcer, where they are not destroyed all together. Hunger, poverty and forced expulsions are the consequences. Sustainable natural resource management strategies are needed at state and enterprise level.

The Environment, Natural Resources and Food Department uses international dialogue and training measures to promote the technical and methodical capacities of specialists and executives from developing countries and transition states. Participants can consider their own experience and approaches, and can obtain up-to-the-moment information about the international debate on natural resources, rural development, food security and the environment. Over and above these concrete measures, a long-term network is established between participants, their organisations and partners from the worlds of politics, academia and industry. The measures are much more than individual upgrading; they have a structure-building impact in the institutions in which participants work.

The department consists of three sector divisions, which complement and strengthen one another thanks to their special areas of competence: the environment, energy and water; natural resources and biodiversity; rural development, food and consumer protection.

The education bridge to Germany, as a learning and industrial site, are the two international conference centres in Bavaria and in Saxony, which are attached to the department.

The work of the department is broken down into nine focal areas of education