Conflicts and synergies between nature conservation and agriculture in Sicily


Photo: Students listening to explanations, mountains can be seen in the background. Photo: Students listening to explanations, mountains can be seen in the background. Photo: Students listening to explanations, mountains can be seen in the background.

In cooperation with the Manfred Hermsen Foundation (Manfred-Hermsen-Stiftung), excursions to Sicily in the area of Mount Etna were carried out in 2011 and 2012. The target group of the excursion were students of the Master's programme in Environmental Planning as well as advanced Bachelor's students. During the excursion week, floristic and faunistic features were recorded in olive groves around the town of Bronte. Here, a cooperative of local farmers has been formed who have converted their olive oil production to controlled organic cultivation and also want to provide more far-reaching services for nature conservation. The inventory was carried out in order to gain knowledge about existing species and biocoenoses and to develop nature conservation goals on this basis. In the course of a newly initiated ERASMUS partnership with the University of Catania, the cooperation on site is to be intensified from 2013 onwards (next excursion probably in 2014). 

Leading the excursion: Prof. Dr. Christina von Haaren, Prof. Dr. Rüdiger PrasseDr. Eick von Ruschkowski, Dipl.-Landschaftsökologe Roland Schröder