Cultural Landscapes Blog

A digital platform which seeks to highlight research, to engage practitioners from the field, to showcase best practices, and contribute to discussions.

Cultural Landscapes BlogThe Eh da-Initiative: A Project to Support Bees in Agricultural Landscapes

The Eh da-Initiative: A Project to Support Bees in Agricultural Landscapes

28 Jan 2021 - 08:18/by Christoph Künast/Tags: biodiversity, habitat management, agricultural landscapes,

Biodiversity protection needs space, and this resource is sparse in most agricultural landscapes. The Eh da-initiative which started in Germany raises the question if more space than generally considered for bees (wild bees as well as honeybees) in agricultural landscapes is available, how this space - if it should be available - can be used, and how an initiative in order to promote bees can be implemented.
The Eh da-Initiative: A Project to Support Bees in Agricultural Landscapes

What is the land which is subject of the “Eh da”-initiative? “Eh da” is a Southern German idiom which means something like “anyway available” or “at hand but unplanned”. Accordingly, Eh da-areas are generally available and have space for ecological optimization. “Eh da-land is open land in agricultural landscapes and small settlements which is not used for economy, agriculture, gardening, and which is not included in nature conservation programs”.  Such areas are often found along traffic ways - waysides, slopes, embankments-, there are dams, banks, and there may be communal lawn or different other kinds of unmanaged plots. Many of these areas are longitudinal and follow traffic ways, some are more compact, and together they form a network which crosses through many agricultural landscapes. A GIS-analysis of several German landscapes showed that there is a considerable amount of land, depending on local conditions, which falls under this definition.  Eh da -area may be in the range of 2-5 % of agricultural landscapes. These areas provide important biotopes for many plants and animals, and they are often corridors which are used for migratory animals and for gene flow between isolated populations of animals and plants. Eh da-projects have the goal to manage these areas in order to improve the resources for bees.

In Germany, there are about 560 bee species. There is increasing scientific evidence that the honeybee is not the only important pollinator, instead, the total pollinator community including wild bees and other flower-visiting insects is the provider of this “ecosystem service”. Many wild bee species declined drastically during the last decades in agricultural landscapes, and they need protection which considers their often very specific breeding and foraging requirements.

Bees depend on flowers, they need pollen and nectar as feed source for larvae and adults, and wild bees need in addition breeding habitats.  Forage is often provided by flower-reach meadows, but many wild bee species are specialists which require definite flower species. Eh da-areas can provide forage plants, and management measures can be implemented for their protection. This may be the cultivation of wild or sown flower strips, targeted mowing intervals which supports blooming, extensification, or the plantation of flowering trees or bushes.  Likewise, breeding habitats for wild bees are often located in Eh da-areas, and again management measures can definitely protect these habitats.  Sun-exposed unsealed soil is used by many solitary bees for nesting.  Stubs, rotten trees or large branches are populated by wild bee species as well as stone structures like boulders or dry-stone walls. Habitats for overwintering wild bees are uncut areas with dry, empty plant stems

Any Eh da-project starts with the analysis of land in a local community which has the potential to protect or newly establish these biotopes. On top, superordinate parameters need to be considered:

- Many wild bees need combined biotopes, i.e. floral resources and nesting habitats must be in vicinity.  Forage distances of wild bees are often in the range of 200-300 m, opposite to the honeybee which may fly several kilometers to find feed.

- Local conditions play an important role, for instance soil characteristics which determine the suitability for nesting of wild bees.

- Structural diversity of landscapes in which Eh da-initiatives are embedded needs to be considered. Again, GIS-analyses of local conditions are helpful tools for planning. When there are gardens and flower-reach vegetation, Eh da-areas may provide breeding habitats or, vice versa, when wild bees are nesting in quarries or gravel-pits, additional forage may be provided.

Any Eh-da initiative needs teamwork. As above mentioned, it is more than a package of isolated biotope management actions. Experiences show the importance of local communities including council and major are key actors. An Eh da-initiative integrates farmers, beekeepers, nature conservationists, and citizens who have interest in the protection of bees which are an attractive, economically and ecologically highly relevant element of biodiversity.

 

For more information:
http://www.innovation-naturhaushalt.de/fileadmin/user_upload/eh-da/Pollinators_need_more_habitats.pdf
http://www.innovation-naturhaushalt.de/eh-da-flaechen-in-agrarlandschaften/

Tell Us What You Think:

Rebecca Harris

15 Jun 2022 - 14:53

Greetings,

I'm not the best speller but I see the word "Lanscape" is spelled incorrectly on your website. In the past I've used a service like SpellAlerts.com or SiteChecker.com to help keep mistakes off of my websites.

-Rebecca

Kyle Anderson

18 Oct 2021 - 14:25

Greetings,

I'm not the best speller but I see the word "Lanscape" is spelled incorrectly on your website. In the past I've used a service like SpellAlerts.com or SiteChecker.com to help keep mistakes off of my websites.

-Kyle

Kelly Davis

10 Jul 2021 - 11:09

Hello,

You misspelled the word "Lanscape" on your website. Sometimes errors like can hurt your web traffic. Maybe check out a service that alerts you to issues like SpellReport.com or CheckMySite.com.

-Kelly

Randy Shields

11 May 2021 - 18:40

It looks like you've misspelled the word "Lanscape" on your website. I thought you would like to know :). Silly mistakes can ruin your site's credibility. I've used a tool called SpellScan.com in the past to keep mistakes off of my website.

-Randy

Beth Clark

28 Jan 2021 - 08:18

It looks like you've misspelled the word "Lanscape" on your website. I thought you would like to know :). Silly mistakes can ruin your site's credibility. I've used a tool called SpellScan.com in the past to keep mistakes off of my website.

-Beth

The information and views set out in this Cultural Landscapes Blog are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the HERCULES project nor the European Commission.

Blog Search

Blog Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by e-mail:

Blog Archive

Tags

, CAP, Cultural Landscape Days, Cultural Landscapes, Cultural heritage, Cultural landscape values, Cultural landscapes, EFAs, ELC, EU level workshop, EU project, EU-funded project, Estonia, European Landscape Convention, European review, HERCULES project, HERCULEs, Knowledge Hub, LIFE+, Lakescape, Land use, Landscape Initiatives, Marine ecosystem, PECSRL, The Bonn Challenge, WHC, WP1, WP3, WP4, World Forest Congress, abandonment, agent-based landscape change model, agrarian landscapes, agricultural landscapes, agriculture landscapes, ancient, anthropology, archaeological site;, archaeology, biodiversity, case studies, case study, citizens, climate change, coastal ecosystem, collaborative project, community plan, cross-disciplinary, cultural capital, cultural heritage, cultural landscape change, cultural landscape typology, cultural landscape values, cultural landscapes, cultural landscapes; driving forces; ecosystem services; landscape management; socio-cultural valuation, culture, data repository, dialogue, diversity, driving forces, dynamics of change, ecological space, ecosystem services, enhancing knowledge, farmland consolidation, field boundarie, field margins, fieldwork, food, foodscapes, forest landscape restoration, forest science, forestry, free access, good management practices, greening, habitat management, heritage, heritage categorisation, heritage inventory, heritage objects, historic ships, historical ecology, human element, human well-being, ice-roads, integrated landscape initiatives, inter- and transdisciplinary integration, knowledge, labelling, land cover, land use, land-use change, landscape, landscape approach, landscape assessment, landscape change, landscape community, landscape development, landscape features, landscape governance, landscape history, landscape labelling, landscape management, landscape policies, landscape preservation, landscape resilience, landscape stewardship, landscape values, landscapes, landscapes art, local, local benefits, local initiative, local natural heritage, local scale workhop, local stakeholder engagement, local supply, long-term changes, management, mapping tool, methods, monument, national landscape, natural capital, ong-term landscape history; landscape change; landscape values; landscape stewardship, oral history, peri-urbanization, photo contest, policies, policy, pond area, prioritization exercise, procedure, reconciling interest, recreational activity, research, research project, restoration, results, revitalization, rural development, scenario, social functions, stakeholder collaboration, stakeholder engagement, stewardship, stewardship goals, stewardship; connectivity; ecological integrity and human wellbeing; ecosystem services, sustainability, synthesis, traditional and local knowledge, web GIS, well-being, wild food, wood-pastures, workshop
Back to top
Hercules Project © 2024 - All rights reserved
created by WebDeb