Importing foreign animals to restore biodiversity

Scientists in Germany are conducting trials to bring long-time herbivores that no longer appear in Europe to promote the development of disappearing native plants here.

The village of Töpchin in the state of Brandenburg, about 40 km from Berlin, is one of the first places to carry out the experiment and the imported alien is the Asian water buffalo. 10,000 years ago, water buffaloes were still native species in Europe, but because the hunting has flourished, it has pushed their habitat far to the southeast of the continent.

It was not until the summer of 2011 that people brought water buffaloes to grazing in the village of Otchin under a project in cooperation with the Brandenburg Nature Conservation Fund. Black-horned animals bred on their own orders in France can graze in the humid and nutrient-poor environments that the cows in Germany are bored with, including some threatened wetlands. and remaining salt marshes.

Mr. Holger Rössling of Brandenburg Nature Conservation Foundation said: 'We need buffaloes to remove biomass, otherwise these areas will lose endemic species and only exist common species . Other With cows, buffaloes suffer well and adapt well. In addition to the advantage of strong hooves, they can also nibble almost all plants'.

These water buffaloes are expected to help restore biodiversity in the village of Töpchin (Photo: Christian Schwägerl).

The Töpchin project is an example of a growing conservation trend in Europe, using large, exotic herbivores to increase the diversity of native flora and fauna. Many people still believe that nature conservation means that indigenous flora and fauna exist separately, without the competition of alien species or restoring their habitat status. But in a world dominated by people and rapidly changing environments today, everything has become more complicated, it is not always possible to maintain a pure area of ​​native species. Sometimes we have to be more creative and flexible in how to adjust the landscape to maintain biodiversity.

What is happening in Germany responds to a trend called ' rewild ' , a global movement that expands key wildlife areas, connecting them through authorized corridors. humans and animals coexist, while protecting and re-entering the top predators. If the 'Natural regeneration of Europe' initiative is led by conservation groups such as the International Fund for Nature Protection (WWF), it aims to 2020 'natural regeneration' of 1 million hectares of land under 10 In contrast, the sanctuary from Spain to the Danube basin and the Carpathian Mountains, on the contrary, projects in Germany to restore biodiversity to the landscapes that people have affected.

In just a short time, many similar projects like Töpchin have appeared throughout Germany. A few kilometers west of Berlin, the Heinz Sielmann Foundation brought 19 Przhevalsky horses - native species of Mongolia - to coexist with 41 European bison in Döberitzer, which had previously been a military training ground. . The goal of the project is to remove wild horses and European bison to remove grass in this area, enabling the species to develop heat.

The next project also uses large herbivores to restore the natural landscape at an old wastewater treatment plant near Berlin. Or in Barnim district in the state of Brandenburg, people combine konik grazing - the horse is believed to have originated from ancient European wild horses - and British cattle. With the advantage of stamina, they are expected to be more adaptable to rough and humid terrain than normal cows in Germany.

Mr. Josef Reichholf, the zoologist and evolutionary biologist of Munich Technical University, who has long supported the introduction of large herbivores to enhance the biodiversity of human-inhabited landscapes. said: 'Grazing konik horses and other large herbivores is the best method to preserve nature in Germany'.

He explained that the landscape is influenced by large amounts of fertilizer from the air when the vehicles and factories release nitrogen oxide. This makes the non-endemic species grow and thereby narrow and ultimately eliminate rare and precious species that are adapted to poor nutrient environments. The dense vegetation also creates a cool wet microclimate that is detrimental to many insects and birds that are suitable for airy habitats. Therefore the introduction of large grass-eating species is aimed at eliminating overgrown plants, allowing native species to thrive.

Unlike the tropics, much of Europe's biodiversity is not in forests, but in grasslands, marshes and wasteland. After centuries of human use, that landscape when returning to the natural state will usually have fewer species, so the reason behind many conservation plans in Germany involves re-importing the animals. Exotic herbivores. The key to re-entry is to focus on monitoring the impact of large herbivores on the landscape.

Conservation projects like Töpchin were initially skeptical by local people as a form of legal occupation, but gradually, they realized the effectiveness of the project and agreed to allow water buffaloes to graze on. his land. At the end of last year, some households in Töpchin also produced buffalo meat and sausage for sale. They believe that Berlin residents will like this natural flavor .