Securing the Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity of extensively managed cultural landscapes - the Ecocult Project

In our poster we showcase the interdisciplinary EcoCult project which started in 2016 and runs until 2022. In this interdisciplinary ‘network’ project an operational partner (Stiftung Naturschutzpark Lüneburger Heide) and research
partners (Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, Leuphana University Lüneburg) cooperate in order to assess the potential of novel and adaptive management and restitutive restoration practices developed to counteract factors threatening heathland landscapes such as habitat fragmentation, nutrient input and climate change.
In field experiments within the Lüneburger Heath region in northern Germany we intend to quantitatively and qualitatively assess multiple ecosystem services and the concurrent biodiversity supported by such cultural landscapes. In addition, a multi-perspective approach will be used to get an understanding of all the immaterial benefits that human beings draw from their natural surroundings (cultural ecosystem services). To this end, methods typically used in the social and cultural sciences will be applied as well as GIS-supported processes. This will result in propositions of how cultural ecosystem services and the quality of life are related thus forming the basis for a social legitimisation of measures aimed at the protection of the natural environment.
Concomitantly, all practices will be evaluated based on their economic viability, their legal conformity (in terms of conservational planning) as well as their public acceptance and, therefore, ultimately their applicability and
transferability within the study region and beyond.
This project is co-funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the joint framework “Research on the Implementation of the National Biodiversity Strategy” and within the BMUB also via the federal programme on Biological Diversity.