A special evening thanks to special guests

Five of these bright spots - as Küntzle fittingly put it - were then the focus of the rest of the evening: our Ambassadors for Biodiversity 2024. Short interviews and small gifts from their farms, which the ambassadors gave away to the audience, provided insights into their very special way of farming and gave the audience an understanding of why it is so important to them to farm in harmony with nature.

On Jakob Mayer's farm, everything focuses on the wild service tree: you can taste the farm's own products made from the aromatic berries in the House of the Wild Service Tree. The wild service tree chalet - equipped with wild service tree furniture - is the ideal place to relax and take in the wonderful landscape with its old, majestic fruit trees. The hollows in the old trees provide nesting sites for birds such as the collared flycatcher. Jakob also creates specific habitats for insects: some dead trees are simply left lying around, making them first-class insect hotels. Mowing is carried out in an insect-friendly manner with the double-blade mower, just like in grandpa's day

Connecting generations is a subject close to Angelina Pucher's heart. With her book “Tell me how it used to be”, Angelina has initiated a project that brings young and old closer together. Primary school children have collected stories and memories of older people from their environment, which Angelina has compiled in this book. Old knowledge and traditions are thus kept alive for future generations, such as on Angelina's Sturm-Archehof farm at 1,300 m: breeds of farm animals threatened with extinction find a home here. Breeds that are perfectly adapted for traditional alpine grazing. In the farm's own button-making workshop, old crafts are reborn and buttons are made from natural materials such as cow horn.

A colorful flock of old livestock breeds keeps Alexander Steindl on his toes: sheep, goats, chickens and cattle change their pasture every 2-3 days at the latest. This promotes soil health and the growth of the green fodder. In order to keep the frequent change of pasture with his cattle as simple as possible, the individual pasture areas run in a radial pattern from a common center in all directions. The boundaries of the individual grazing areas, the “rays” of the so-called sun pasture, are strips of woodland to bring structural diversity to the grassland areas. Alexander grows the planting material for the agroforestry systems in his private tree nursery, as he was often unable to find what he was looking for in local nurseries due to a lack of variety.

A wide variety of fruit and vegetables can be found on Armin Rauch's farm - remarkable, given that the Vorarlberg native's farm is located 900 meters above sea level. Not less remarkable for many hobby gardeners: Armin does not know snail plagues. Running ducks patrol the outer edges of his gardens, eagerly searching for the slimy delicacies. Tiger snails, which prefer the eggs of their close relatives to fresh fruit and vegetables, also provide useful services. A well-designed pond not only creates a habitat for amphibians and reptiles, but also reflects the sun's rays onto the adjoining greenhouse and provides plenty of warmth for the growing harvest.

In sunny southern Styria, organic winegrower Otto Knaus likes to seek out the cooling shade under one of his trees during the exhausting work in the vineyard. These are also ideal places for him to pause and observe the colorful life in his vineyard, because there is no room for boring vineyard monotony here: insects eagerly collect nectar in the flower- and herb-rich lanes, which Otto never mows in one go and sufficiently late. Songbirds warble their songs in the trees, while an Emerald Lizard enjoys its sunbath on the edge of a strip of woodland. Otto's heart beats for Grass Snakes, Smooth Snakes and others. He offers the cold-blooded creatures a warm place for cold hours in specially constructed snake nests, black pond liner fixed in a wooden frame.

Five short films present the farms and approaches of the Biodiversity Ambassadors 2024 and encouraged people to vote for their personal favorite story. More than 1,500 people took part in the online vote. The result was announced on November 18 by Barbara Steurer, Managing Director of ÖKL and member of the Farming For Nature expert jury: Alexander Steindl from Haidershofen in Lower Austria won the most votes.

Hans Gnauer's enthusiasm for the topic of soil health and soil-conserving cultivation, in order to work economically and at the same time promote biodiversity, is actively realized on his arable farm. In addition, he is always keen to share his passion for soil-conserving farming with as wide an audience as possible, both in writing - in the form of articles in specialist journals or newsletters - and verbally in the form of workshops, field days, lectures, etc. as part of his activities as deputy chairman of the Boden.Leben association. Reason enough to give Hans Gnauer an honorary Farming For Nature award for his extraordinary and tireless commitment to biodiversity.

Appropriate funding is necessary to ensure that environmentally friendly agriculture not only supports and promotes nature, but also offers farmers not just idealistic but also financial incentives. In order to design and implement large agricultural funding instruments such as the ÖPUL, the approving bodies need not only technical expertise but also great negotiating skills and a certain amount of tact in order to listen to and understand representatives of different interest groups and find adequate compromises. These are qualities that Lukas Weber-Hajszan, Head of Department II/3 at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management, embodies like no other. Above all, however, it is the way he always treats his counterpart with respect, while at the same time being a reliable, competent and always accessible point of contact for technical questions - qualities that Max Albrecht, as representative of the nature conservation authority, particularly emphasized in his laudatory speech to Lukas Weber-Hajszan, the second winner of the honorary Farming For Nature Award.