Excursion to the Weitsee, where Josef Heigenhauser, the mayor of Reit im Winkel, welcomed the participants © Sabrina Schäfer
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23.10.2019
Symposium „LIFE living Natura 2000“
From 17th to 18th October 2019, the Bavarian Academy for Nature Conservation and Landscape Management organized the specialist symposium "NATURA 2000 in Germany - impulses for communication, monitoring and implementation" in Laufen an der Salzach. The event was hosted by the project "LIFE living Natura 2000", funded by the European Union under the LIFE program. Themed "Right up my nature", this communication project aims to draw the attention of a wide range of target groups - land users, politicians, business persons and the younger generation - to the importance of the Natura 2000 network of protected areas and to increase knowledge about the European natural heritage in Bavaria. The aim of the symposium was to present the progress of the project since it started in July 2017 and to give suggestions through the practical experience of the lecturers.
The project team around Florian Wetzel and Theresa Bode had put together an informative and diversified lecture and excursion program. Colleagues from almost all German federal states and from Austria took part, mainly employees in nature conservation associations, forestry, water management and nature conservation administration, planning offices and land users. Sabrina Schäfer from the Lower Saxony Water Management, Coastal Defence and Nature Conservation Agency (NLWKN) participated for the IP-LIFE Atlantic Region DE in this symposium.
On the first day, besides presentations by the project team, there were short presentations of LIFE projects from Mecklenburg-West Pomerania and the NABU Lower Saxony on the status of Natura 2000 and the relation to ecosystem services. In addition, the project "F.R.A.N.Z." was introduced, which aims at voluntary benefits in conventional agriculture in order to preserve and increase biodiversity in the agricultural landscape. Furthermore, cooperative measures were presented in the Solling-Vogler Nature Park and "blue-green projects" related to Natura 2000 and the EU Water Framework Directive.
In the practical part of the day, the participants worked in four groups to formulate recommendations and success factors on the following topics: communication, monitoring, implementation as well as politics and Natura 2000. The results were then presented in the plenary.
On the second day, an excursion to the alpine area “Röthelmoos” was made. At the first stop, Hermann Hein (Bavarian State Forests) informed about the implementation of Natura 2000 in the mixed montane forest. The next stage took the participants to the moorland on the alpine pastures, where Franz Schneider (chairman of the “Almgesellschaft”) illustrated the land management. Much of the pastures are owned by the state forest which grants long-term grazing rights to resident farmers. On the way to the Weitsee, Harald Siegler (Bavarian State Forests) explained the effects of climate change and protective forest aspects in relation to Natura 2000 in the mixed montane forest - among other things on a scarp where a landslide had deracinated several trees last winter. At the Weitsee, there was a picturesque view of the lake with its richly structured riparian vegetation. Here, the participants learned, among other things, of the high public acceptance in regard to the complete road block of the national highway that runs parallel to the lakes during the period of amphibian migration.
All participants will receive a summary of the results of the working groups. Further information on the LIFE project and its communication strategy can be found on the project’s website. These include two short films in which the extreme mountaineer Alexander Huber and the ornithologist Auguste von Bayern speak as Natura 2000 ambassadors.