2023-07-04 11:06:11
One hundred municipalities in Upper Austria are actively involved in bee protection and biodiversity. New members were celebrated at the Bee Festival, including Gschwandt.
GSCHWANDT. 21 new “bee-friendly communities” were honored last Thursday, June 29th, by environmental provincial councilor Stefan Kaineder and Gerlinde Larndorfer from the Upper Austrian Climate Alliance in the OKH – Open Culture House in Vöcklabruck. With the support of the Upper Austrian soil alliance, they dispense with pesticides on public green spaces, plant them in a bee-friendly way or invite the population to turn their home gardens into small oases for insects.
“Soil is our livelihood, but also the basis for biodiversity. The fact that so many people in more and more communities are getting involved in our project shows how important it is for many to treat the soil and nature with care. I’m happy about 100 bee-friendly communities in Upper Austria,” says project manager Gerlinde Larndorfer from the Upper Austrian Soil Alliance.
A feast for the bees
With a colorful bee festival with around 200 participants in the Open Culture House in Vöcklabruck, not only the new and thus a total of 100 bee-friendly communities in Upper Austria were celebrated, but also the communities that have been involved in the project for five years: Asten, Dorf on the Pram, Gallneukirchen, Ottnang, Utzenaich and Vöcklabruck have been bee-friendly communities for five years and are still active.
More than 60 kindergarten children immersed themselves in the wonderful world of bees with the two clowns from “Becoming Beezzz”. They went on a journey of discovery together, which made it clear that very small things and living beings often have a major impact on our lives.
The morning workshops offered the opportunity to learn how to identify local bumblebees, learn more about natural honeycomb beekeeping or the activities of the bee-friendly municipality of Vöcklabruck. The afternoon was all about biodiversity in Upper Austria with lectures and discussions. The contribution of the bee-friendly communities was particularly appreciated by Bärbl Pachinger from BOKU Vienna, because as many areas as possible with regional wild plants result in a mosaic of diversity.
One hundred bee-friendly communities in Upper Austria
The highlight of the bee festival was the awarding of the 21 new bee-friendly communities by Climate Councilor Stefan Kaineder. The award-winning communities in 2023 were: Adlwang, Alkoven, Bad Leonfelden, Enns, Fischlham, Frankenmarkt, Gramastetten, Gschwandt, Haibach ob der Donau, Hinterstoder, Hörbich, Natternbach, Niederwaldkirchen, Oberschlierbach, Oberwang, Ried im Innkreis, St. Marien, Schärding, Seewalchen am Attersee, Tiefgraben and Weyregg am Attersee.
“With the Bee Festival we are celebrating the success story of the bee-friendly communities in Upper Austria. Because we started as a pilot project with six communities in 2016, we have passed the one hundred community mark with the 20 communities that have now been awarded. For example, the panel “Here grows a bee pasture” can now be found hundreds of times in Upper Austria and shows committed communities and regained habitat for bees and insects. A great result for our network and for the team of the Bodenbündnis Oberösterreich, whom I would like to thank very much for their dedicated work. Let’s continue together, let’s be amazed and happy about every single wild bee that adopts a newly created area as their home. Bee-friendly communities are role models in the commitment to more diversity, a valuable and forward-looking contribution and active climate protection,” says Environment and Climate Councilor Stefan Kaineder, pleased about the milestone that has been reached.
Gschwandt is also there
Numerous flower meadow areas have already been created in the municipality through a change in care. The result of the change in care can already be admired, especially in the seepage basins, where the rural youth actively supported the seeding. The rural youth is also very closely involved in raising awareness among children. Because they supervise school workshops on the subject of bees and organize holiday fun. A budget for a flowering shrub campaign has already been fixed. A regulars’ table with local farmers and beekeepers was also very successful. A repeat is already planned here.
Project Bee-Friendly Communities
Municipalities are role models, mediators and awareness makers and can thus play a key role on site. At a start workshop, all the important players – from the beekeepers’ association, local farmers to the building yard – are involved and ideas for the community are developed. During an inspection, specific areas are sought in the project and suggestions are made on how public areas can flourish with more native, bee-friendly plants. In the implementation workshop, measures are specified and, above all, a package for raising awareness and involving the population is put together.
All bee-friendly communities voluntarily refrain from using chemical-synthetic pesticides.
“Focus on diversity” photo competition
Around 50 amateur photographers took a close look at the diversity in their bee-friendly communities and submitted over 150 great pictures. The monthly winners have already been chosen – the overall winners have now also been honored at the Bee Festival:
1st prize: Lars Fachet from St. Florian: “Bee full of pollen” – garden advice from the REWISA network
2nd prize: Hannes Weinberger from Perg: “Bee with a lot of pollen” – 100 euros voucher from the Hartheim Institute
3rd prize: Regina Füreder from Niederwaldkirchen: “Valentina and Magdalena in the Marguerite Meadow” – 50 euro voucher from “Wild Flowers”
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