Summary

Saxony has a high diversity of landscapes. The conservation of its species and habitats depends on land users accepting and adopting environmentally sound practices. To facilitate this, land users need to be informed about nature conservation issues.Since 2008, Saxony has been offering land users free advice on nature conservation and relevant qualifications, through nature conservation consultants. More recently, it also offers a farm-wide nature conservation qualification, called the "Nature Management Plan“. This follows a simple, hands-on approach, proposing possible actions for the ecological upgrading of farm holdings in a joint consultation process between land users and conservation consultants.

Results

From 2008 to 2017, 4.100 consultations and 6.660 suggestions on actions were made.

An analysis in 2010 revealed that 71% of the suggested measures have been implemented.

The Saxonian model is one of several very interesting examples in Germany, with the common feature that they are all well adapted to specific situations and farming structures.