Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner visited ZALF project

On 7th June, the Federal Minister of Agriculture, Julia Klöckner, visited the Temmen farm. The farm is one of 150 farms participating in the project "Landwirtschaft für Artenvielfalt" ("Agriculture for Biodiversity"). Scientific support is provided by ZALF. Julia Klöckner praised the project's approach, which focuses on both biodiversity and secure yields. Particularly noteworthy is that consumers can actively promote biodiversity by buying certain foods.

On 7th June 2021, Julia Klöckner came to learn about the diverse nature conservation services that have been implemented for years on the 3,500-hectare organically managed farm Temmen. Over 50 different nature conservation services are provided in the five sub-farms. So far, 16 endangered red listed arable weed species have been found. The skylark breeds in high density in the fields. Fire-bellied toad, great crested newt and tree frog have a distribution center here with nationally significant population sizes. The reasons for the very high species diversity lie in the large-scale ecological cultivation with nature-friendly cultivation methods. In addition, within the framework of the project and with the support of contractual nature conservation in the Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve, additional very effective measures to promote biodiversity have been implemented for many years.

The "Landwirtschaft für Artenvielfalt" ("Agriculture for Biodiversity") project is the largest model project for biodiversity in organic farming nationwide. At the heart of the project is a catalog of over 130 different nature conservation measures from which organic farmers can choose the ones that are particularly suitable for their farm. The conservation module and the evaluation system were developed at ZALF. In order to verify the effectiveness of additional conservation measures for specific species, success checks are carried out. When a certain point total is reached, the farms receive the nature conservation certificate from the farming association. WWF Germany is responsible for project management. EDEKA supports the project financially and organizationally, markets the products of the participating farms and rewards the additional services for nature conservation. Shortly before the visit of the Federal Minister of Agriculture, the 100th farm received its nature conservation certificate.