Our Annual Report 2021

We are preserving natural heritage on our foundation’s land by, for example, completing the revitalisation of the Binsenberg slope spring bog last year. Groundwater levels are rising and species that have become rare, such as the marsh penduline and the snipe, feel at home again. We sustain on the services that peatlands offer us, such as carbon storage, habitat for rare species, water purification and biomass production in paludiculture. Together with the Michael Otto Environmental Foundation, we have therefore started the initiative "toMOORow - wet peatlands for a sustainable future". Through UNESCO inscriptions, we value areas worth of protection. Last year we were successful twice. The Lower Amudarya Biosphere Reserve in Uzbekistan was included in the World Network of UNESCO Biosphere Reserves and the Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands in Georgia were officially inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

With our annual report, we would like to take you on a journey through our working groups and tell you even more about what great things we have been able to achieve for nature conservation. The year 2021 was also marked by restrictions that made personal meetings and trips to project areas difficult or impossible. But through our long-standing cooperation with partners in many countries around the world, we were able to achieve a lot.

There is still plenty to do! One of our most urgent projects is to save the primeval Wasdow Forest in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, because the nascent forest wilderness is threatened by a forced sale. In the worst case, there is a threat of a change of ownership and renewed cultivation at the expense of the lesser spotted eagles living there, which are threatened with extinction, the climate and biodiversity! Join us in becoming a forest saviour.

Your support is essential for our conservation work - for that I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Jan Peters
Managing Director

Read our annual report here.