Innovation groups Innovation groups In the small village of Göritz in the Spreewald, somewhat hidden on the backside of a farm barn, there is a green monster made of sheet metal and steel. Through a peephole in the front hatch you can see a glowing inferno and feel the heat coming from it. The texture of the material being burned inside is barely recognizable. They‘re bales of hay. This "hay oven" is the result of a lengthy negotiation process and decades of conflict. It is a sign of change – and of compromise. Whether it also solves the problem for which it was developed remains to be seen. There are conflicts all over Germany that have their origin in land use. Gardens, fields or meadows make way for housing developments, motorways and factories. The land which is transformed in this way amounts to more than 60 hectares. Every single day. This adds up to over 220 square kilometers per year. Land becomes a contentious issue in many places: The wind turbines that arose What does sustainable land use look like? There are very different conceptions of this. IDEAS FOR NEW LAND USE And this is what makes it so special: The nine research groups do not rely on science alone. "The problems are taken directly from practice", explains Dr. Jana Zscheischler. She and her colleague Sebastian Rogga accompany the work of the groups at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) from a scientific perspective in cooperation with the inter3 Institute for Resource Management. They investigate how science and practice can be combined in order to find viable solutions. And this is not an easy task. "There are different demands on land use. And there are always people who win and people who lose", says Zscheischler. Solar modules beneath which cows graze, regional cultural landscapes as a brand or blossom strips as habitats for plants and animals – there are many ideas for breaking new ground. With technical input, networking and coaching, the innovation groups are addressing the challenges in order to establish a future-oriented land management system that uses land resources efficiently. "The rationally acquired knowledge of science and the more experience-based knowledge of local people are brought together here", explains Sebastian Rogga. At the interface of these two types of knowledge, the potential for innovation is particularly high. DR. JANA ZSCHEISCHLER with the energy revolution, the competition between the cultivation of food and energy crops on agricultural fields or the reutilization of the former airport Tempelhof in Berlin, which was fought over for years – interests are clashing. There are often deep divisions between the various actors. Politics is beginning to take countermeasures. This is why the Federal Ministry of Education and Research launched a new research approach in 2014. Since then, nine "Innovation Groups for Sustainable Land Management" have been looking for ways to reconcile land use interests – together with local people. In a process similar to the extraction of charcoal, the hay is carbonized in the oven. The resulting gases are burnt and thus generate heat. 04 05
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