wildbienen-bedroht

Beitrag von Nicolas Bramke

03.05.2017

As previously reported, the population of the fox-red sandbee in the south of Berlin survived the construction work well thanks to the regulations drawn up by Your Little Planet and the Berlin nature conservation authorities. Whoever thinks that the animals are finally safe with it is wrong, and we really looked out of the laundry quite irritatedly at what happened there recently.

It was only by chance that one of us walked past the areas inhabited by wild bees and marveled at the tire profiles in the still damp soil on the meadow - during the activity period.

reifenprofile zoom klein

We compared these impressions with the tire profiles of vehicles on a nearby area and then identified a company for horticulture and landscaping as the cause.

bagger klein

What we heard then almost made our ears fall off. Preparatory work had begun there (removal of branches and other disturbing elements from the lawns) in order to repair the areas on behalf of the landlord, due to last year's construction work. For this purpose, a 2-3 cm thick layer of humus and grass seed should be applied to the entire area. This would have looked like the picture below, which has already been done in another part of the apartment block without nesting areas:

humus flaechig klein

The fact that a protected species nests there had been communicated to the company by the housing association and was known. According to the company owner, the whole thing would have been discussed with an employee of the nature conservation authority. Since we knew this co-worker, we were at least a little more relaxed, because he is known to us as a conscientious co-worker of the Senate administration. Nevertheless, we said that we will finalize this with experts, so the company decided to let the work rest until the weekend and continue working elsewhere.

Due to our skepticism about the project, we contacted Germany's leading wild bee experts as announced, in order to clarify how much this intervention would affect the bees currently active at this time. Both Germany's top expert for wild bees Dr. Paul Westrich and Jens Esser, first chairman of the entomological society Orion Berlin, responded very quickly and urgently recommended that such measures should not be carried out at any time. The intervention would conceal the microstructures that are so important for the orientation of wild bees, would not find and abandon nests that have already begun, and would also alter the composition of the nesting substrate.

With these statements we then contacted the employee of the nature conservation authority known to us in order to provide him with this information and to cancel the alleged permission. In the course of the dialogue, however, it turned out that the company had indeed made contact with the Berlin nature conservation authority... but had not submitted an application for an exemption for work on these areas, 8the company would then have been rejected).

Only on the day of our contact with the company for horticulture and landscaping, on this very day, they officially informed the nature conservation authority about the concrete project, but still without submitting a proper application. The work was banned and we are now working together with the Berlin nature conservation authorities and the experts to find a solution for future treatment of these areas and the animals nesting there.

The intervention, which would have destroyed the population with no small probability, raises questions that were not clearly answered. Why does a horticulture and landscaping company not know how to deal with areas where protected species live? Why is it not known that an exemption is required for such work? Why should the entire lawn area be covered with a layer in the case of these areas and not, as on the other side of the block, with considerably more damage to the areas, only isolated spots as in the following case?

humus patch klein

We now know at least that we have to pay much more attention to this very special population, because on the basis of ignorance almost everyone seems to be able to destroy himself due to animals being protected by species protection without having to fear severe penalties (only fines). For this reason, we at Your Little Planet! need much more publicity for this special Berlin wild bee population.

Translated with: https://www.deepl.com/translator

 bienenkoepfchen klein

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