WLE study visit in Hainich National Park and Crawinkel Farm by Regionaal Landschap Kempen and Maasland and the province of Limburg, 25/09/2021 till 28/09/2021.
Lessons learned in both areas:
Hainich
• 1997 creation
• 7,5k ha
• Inserted in a nature park (80k ha)
• Issues with farmers: wild boar (far too many)
• 42 staff members
• 266 jobs created
• UNESCO for the beech trees (oldest in Germany)
• Weather station where they monitor changes in climate
• They are monitoring carbon (cooperation with university - Georg-August Universitat Gottingen)
• They have 2 goals (nature conservation, scientific research +
• Core areas non managed for 50 years
• Study with turnover impact in the business
• 350k visitors / year > half go to the canopy walk (main attraction)
• No fees
• Fully funded by the lander
• They offer training to the entrepreneurs
• They don't charge any money to the businesses neither
• Health prevention training organized by the bungalow campsite
• Part of a great organisation (Europarc >>> NNL - Nationale Naturlandschaften) search the new) where they do coordinate
• Managed by the lander
• Kidspark was built by 1,5M€ by the Landers
• It was a military camp and therefore untouched for many years
• Highlights: wild cat - wild cat village + the crane
• Bike + horse tracks
• They have visitor sensor (for the park)
• Canopy used also for education
• Tracks for disabled - wild promenade
• Let nature be nature - they don't do introductions
• Connection with culture - Kastel Wartburg)
• 80% staff costs on general budget
• 2,5M€/year management cost + 0,5M€ special projects
• Kids oriented educational panels + big old tree
• Research on the canopy
• Not yet managed to influence other way of farming but on the way to
• No exotic invasive species
Crawinkel
• 2,5 kha
• 65% EU funding dependant (special funding - column "2" of the CAP) + 30% livestock (horses + cattle) + 5% tourism
• 1'200 landowners (coming from the RDA time)
• 500 horses
• 500 cattle
• 2 cattle/ha
• Set as an organic farm since 2002
• 16 staff
• Run by the family (4 ppl)
• The reason to change was the European
• Important to be part and active in the community mostly for small landowners who would be happy to even leave it for free
• 25-150€/ha/yr
• It's cheap because the soil layer is too thin
• Sell cattle (30/yr) + sport horses + Konik horses
• Tourism attraction: water buffalo +lama
• Stays the whole year round outside (just fed with hay in winter)
• Looking for a combination of solar with cattle or sheep (75ha)
• Improvement noticed with small bird species that nest in the grasslands now - ground breeding species
• They must keep the edges otherwise you may lose the grassland status (forest cannot go back to grassland)
• No shelter for the animals
• Less costs than other convention farming although smaller turnover - but this option takes the best of the fertility conditions he has
• If the solid would be more fertile than it's not worth this model
