Nature conservation on the west coast of northern Germany

Name: Nature conservation on the west coast of northern Germany
Start: 2024-09-21
End: 2024-10-02
Location: Flensburg, Germany

Germany Teenagers Environment Manual work Teenagers Environment +1 Fixed dates

About the project

📝 Detailed information

🏢 About the local organisation

Schleswig-Holstein State Office for Environment (LfU) The State Office for Environment is a higher state authority in the portfolio of the Ministry for Energy Transition, Agriculture, the Environment, Nature and Digitalization (Ministerium für Energiewende, Landwirtschaft, Umwelt, Natur und Digitalisierung) of the state of Schleswig-Holstein. Six so-called Integrated Stations are locally active institutions for the implementation of nature conservation goals in particularly significant natural areas of the state of Schleswig-Holstein. They combine ideas from the fields of nature conservation, agriculture, regional development and "soft tourism" and thus bring together various locally active stakeholders. Each year, the ijgd run a workcamp with a different Integrated Station - in 2024 with the Integrated Station West Coast. The ijgd has been organising volunteer service programmes since 1949. We are an independent, non-profit association for international youth work, a recognised independent youth welfare organisation, and one of the largest and oldest workcamp organisations in Germany. Each year, we assist around 5,000 young people into volunteer work in Germany and abroad. We give them the opportunity to be creative, act in solidarity, take responsibility for themselves, and discover their own true potential and strengths. Our principles: Ecological learning, voluntary contribution, self-organisation, social development, intercultural learning, gender equality, anti-racism/anti-discrimination and political education. Follow us on Instagram ijgd_workcamps Facebook @ijgd.workcamps

💼 What the programme involves

The west coast of Schleswig-Holstein is characterised by the marine habitat of the Wadden Sea, the adjoining marshland with its characteristic dykes and dyked lands the adjacent tidal flats in the hinterland. The dyked lands in the marsh landscape of the west coast were created by dykes for land reclamation. Heavily drained, the marshes are now mainly used intensively as fertile farmland and grassland. For this reason, increasingly large parts of the dyked marshes, which were removed from the Wadden Sea after 1935, have been designated as nature conservation areas and/or incorporated into flora and fauna habitats (FFH) and/or EU bird sanctuaries. The activities of the project partner Integrated Station West Coast are focussed on these "nature protection dyked lands" as well as on the protected areas in the Eider estuary and the Eiderstedt EU bird sanctuary. The areas managed by the Integrated Station West Coast include wet meadows with very high water levels and extensive mowing or grazing, which are of great importance for meadow birds and wild geese in particular. You support the staff of the Integrated Station West Coast in creating and maintaining favourable conditions for particularly endangered breeding and resting bird species such as lapwing, skylark, ruff, redshank, black-tailed godwit, little ringed plover, little tern and little ringed plover, which are dependent on wet and open grassland. The measures are primarily aimed at improving the habitat conditions for the highly endangered meadow and coastal birds, which are dependent on open and moist grassland. With your support in clearing grassland, cutting willows, removing shrubs, maintaining the nature trail, caring for breeding islands and other maintenance measures, retreats for numerous rare animal and plant species as well as an important reservoir of biodiversity can be preserved and improved. In addition to the practical work, you will learn a lot about nature and environmental protection in general and in the dyked lands in particular from the staff of the Integrated Station West Coast. You will learn a lot about the local flora and fauna, their relevance for the ecosystem and the various measures to protect them.

🏠 Accommodation on site

You will stay in a beautiful leisure group house. The typical North Frisian house is thatched. The house has 4 triple and 5 double rooms, a large lounge, a large, fully equipped kitchen, several bathrooms, a washing machine and an outdoor area of approx. 800 square metres with a sun terrace, garden furniture, table tennis table, table football and barbecue. You cater for yourselves and cook together. Money for shopping will be provided. Vegetarian or vegan meals are possible. Please indicate any intolerances when registering.

📍 About the location

After work, you can relax in the large outdoor area of your accommodation with games (ball games) and around the campfire. At the weekend, trips to Hamburg (www.hamburg.de) and the North Sea to Sankt-Peter-Ording or to the North Frisian islands and Halligen such as Sylt, Amrum, Hallig Hooge (sandy beach and Wadden Sea) are well worthwhile.

⚠️ Requirements

Fitness for physically strenuous work; It is essential to bring rain and windproof work clothing and (waterproof) sturdy shoes (preferably rubber boots);