Insect-promoting regions: Action sheets protect biodiversity in agriculture

Radolfzell, 23.03.2022: Farmers are currently under a lot of pressure: they are expected to be food producers, landscape designers and nature conservationists at the same time – at least that is what many of them feel is the burdening expectation of politics and society. Current developments in agricultural policy promise to support them in this Herculean task in the near future. However, there is hardly any substantial support in sight for genuine nature conservation on their production areas.

An initiative of the LIFE Insect-Friendly Regions (IFR) project funded by the EU Commission promises to provide at least partial relief: A wealth of action sheets, which are now available to download free of charge from the project website, provide concrete tips for the effective protection of biodiversity and insect populations on the farm – whether in arable farming, grassland, fruit growing, viticulture or for agricultural structures.

“Our aim is to implement nature conservation in a very factual and tangible way,” says Saskia Wolf from the Lake Constance Foundation. “We don’t want to put pressure on farm managers, but rather provide concrete assistance on how they can improve the ecological situation on their farms. I think our almost forty action sheets are a very useful support here: we have developed them together with farmers on our demonstration farms and describe in detail how we can contribute to protecting our natural resources: Whether with species-rich tramline planting in orchards or tips for insect-friendly mowing in grassland – there is something for every farm.”

The pool of measure sheets on the LIFE IFR website will continue to grow over the coming months, as those responsible for the demonstration farms in the project, as well as local authorities, forestry companies and extraction sites, diligently provide further input. The project aims to help network the various land use stakeholders in order to bring biodiversity and insect protection to the area in a sustainable way. In addition to advice, training and the exchange of experience, the action sheets are a key component in achieving this goal.

All measure sheets are available for download here

The LIFE Insect-Friendly Regions project is working with demonstration farms in seven pilot regions in Germany to find solutions for holistic insect and biodiversity conservation at landscape level. It is funded by the EU Commission as part of the LIFE program. Other sponsors are the German Federal Environmental Foundation, the district of Lake Constance, the agricultural Rentenbank, the Foundation for Nature Conservation in the Sparkasse Bodensee Donors’ Association and the Deutsche Post Code Lottery.

To the project website of LIFE Insect-promoting regions