Experience Orchard

Year

2014

Organisation

50Hertz

Description

Development of an orchard area as part of the mitigation and compensation measures portfolio of 50Herts that combined both environmental and social aspects.

 

Objectives:

  • Integrate social activities and cooperation on a regular basis into the compensatory measures process
  • Utilize the orchard area with a larger social impact and a larger participation of stakeholders
  • Develop awareness in nature and biodiversity preservation

 

Main information:

Together with NGO Mundraub and real eastate compay, Berliner Stadtgüter, 50Hertz developed the concept for an educational orchard area to compensate for the environmental impacts caused by a planned 380 kV grid line running through Brandenburg. 200 apple trees have already been planted in 2009/2010 and 193 more will be added in 2015/2016.

To utilize the orchard in a way to boost its social impact and to increase the number of visitors, 50Hertz now plans to offer tree cutting courses as well as plant and animal introductory courses. They also intend to construct a bee house and offer teaching modules that can be integrated into school curriculums. An additional initiative to produce juice with the fruit from the orchard has already been started in September 2014, when a few bottles of apple juice were produced to quench the thirst of participants at a local sporting event.

 

RGI gratefully acknowledges the EU LIFE funding support:

EU LIFE funding support Logo

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the LIFE Programme. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.