International Nature Conservation Academy

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Nature Conservation Academy guest houses

The International Nature Conservation Academy (INA) is a state academy that organizes nature conservation-related events in Germany and internationally. It is part of the Vilm branch of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and supports the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety with its work .

Structure and tasks

The academy, founded in 1990, has held events with over 45,000 participants from over 160 countries since it was founded (as of 2015).

In the program, which is updated annually, the INA sets thematic priorities with around 70 international and national events, for example:

  • Support of the global nature conservation conventions
  • Training and advice for nature conservation specialists from abroad
  • Training for German specialists in international nature conservation
  • Nationwide exchange on approaches and instruments in German nature conservation
  • Promotion of the social dialogue on basic issues of nature conservation.

As a conference venue, it is also available to other institutions that want to hold events on nature and environmental protection issues.

Due to its origins in German reunification, the academy is intended to "be a window in natural politics to Northern and Eastern Europe and [...] to build bridges to the Baltic Sea states and the countries of Eastern Europe [...]".

History of the island and the academy

Evidence of the history of the island of Vilm goes back to the Stone Age . From AD 600 to the 12th century it was already inhabited by Slavs , for whom Vilm was a holy place. A chapel was built on Vilm in the Middle Ages (first chapel in the 14th century, replaced by a second in 1494) and the island was home to hermit monks until the 16th century. As early as the 13th century, the island was owned by the royal family zu Putbus , who used Vilm as a summer residence in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In the 19th century the island was leased as a farm. At the end of the 19th century, the tenants built a small hotel that was used until around 1950. The buildings were then expropriated and the tenant family had to leave Vilm. Until 1960, the island of Vilm remained a popular excursion destination with up to 700 day visitors.

In 1962 a guest house for the GDR Council of Ministers was opened, after which the island was closed to public traffic for 30 years. Vilm was now a regular holiday destination for high-ranking GDR politicians and employees of the Council of Ministers. Also Margot and Erich Honecker visited the island a few times and stayed at number 2. The so resulting seclusion of the island proved to nature conservation concerns as positive. Because the island of Vilm has been a nature reserve since 1936 . Its peculiarity lies in the forest, which has been almost unmanaged for almost 500 years, and the coast, which has been spared from bank reinforcements.

After German reunification, the International Nature Conservation Academy Vilm was opened on October 6, 1990 by the then Federal Environment Minister Klaus Töpfer . Since 1993 the facility on Vilm has been a branch of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation , whose headquarters are in Bonn . The Insel Vilm nature reserve has been the core zone of the Southeast Rügen Biosphere Reserve since autumn 1990 . From 1990 onwards, Vilm was reopened to the public to a limited extent: from March to October, up to 30 visitors can enter the island twice a day under an authorized guide.

In the years after 1990, many measures for an environmentally friendly operation of the branch office were carried out. These include a photovoltaic system, a solar thermal system, a wood pellet heating system, the replacement of the decentralized electrical heating system with a central oil heating system, extensive insulation measures, the installation of insulating windows and a fully biological sewage treatment plant. Besides the property of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, there are no other buildings on Vilm and apart from a tractor and electric vehicles there are no cars.

Premises and equipment

INA has three conference rooms that can accommodate between 12 and 65 people. The conference guests are accommodated on the island of Vilm in nine guest houses, in which single and double rooms with bath are available. The supply runs through the in-house kitchen. There are no shops or other shopping opportunities on Vilm. The overnight stay for private purposes, e.g. B. Holidays are not allowed on Vilm.

Access

The island of Vilm used to be a popular vacation spot for many tourists. At the time of the GDR government, however, public access to the island was forbidden. Since 1990 the island can be visited again to a limited extent.

Arrival and departure for conference guests and employees takes place between the port in Lauterbach and the port in Vilm by the regular ferry service of the BfN. The ferry times are tailored to the arrival and departure of the train in Lauterbach . The public, guided tours from March to October are organized by the Lenz passenger shipping company; registration is required for this. Groups of up to 30 people can explore the island of Vilm up to twice a day. Every year, there is a public autumn walk in October and an open day in summer.

Culture

In the permanent exhibition " The Tree and Me ", the gallery shows artistic perspectives of the forest landscape on Vilm in photographic works by Volkmar Herre . In the settlement area, sculptures by the Rügen artists Hans Werner Kratzsch and Bernhard Misgajski can be seen. Music concerts are also held several times a year.

The winners of the annually awarded German Prize for Nature Writing , donated by the Matthes & Seitz publishing house in Berlin, receive a scholarship from the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation for a stay of several weeks to write on the island of Vilm. Public readings are also held during this time.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b 25 [twenty-five] years of the Insel Vilm branch of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation: a balance sheet . In: Hannah von Hammerstein, Gisela Stolpe (eds.): BfN scripts . tape 419 . Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, Bonn 2015, p. 26th f .
  2. ↑ Norbert Buske: Vilm - The story of an island . thomasius verlag, Schwerin 1994, p. 90 .
  3. ↑ Norbert Buske: Vilm - The story of an island . thomasius verlag, Schwerin 1994, p. 16 .
  4. ↑ Norbert Buske: Vilm - The story of an island . thomasius verlag, Schwerin 1994, p. 18th ff .
  5. ↑ Toni Preller: The Vilm - The painter island . F. Emil Bodden, Dresden-Blasewitz 1906.
  6. ^ Hans Dieter Knapp: Isle of Vilm, nature reserve in the biosphere reserve of Southeast Rügen . Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, Bonn 2012.
  7. ↑ Norbert Buske: Vilm - The story of an island . thomasius verlag, Schwerin 1994, p. 36 .
  8. ↑ Norbert Buske: Vilm - The story of an island . thomasius verlag, Schwerin 1994, p. 89 .
  9. ↑ Harry Schmidt: The years between 1945 and 1960 . In: Association for the care of the natural and cultural heritage of the island of Vilm (ed.): The island of Vilm - A reading book . 2nd Edition. VIV, Putbus 2003, p. 173 .
  10. ↑ 25 [twenty-five] years of the Insel Vilm branch of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation: a balance sheet . In: Hannah von Hammerstein, Gisela Stolpe (eds.): BfN scripts . tape 419 . Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, Bonn 2015, p. 19 .
  11. ↑ 25 [twenty-five] years of the Insel Vilm branch of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation: a balance sheet . In: Hannah von Hammerstein, Gisela Stolpe (eds.): BfN scripts . tape 419 . Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, Bonn 2015, p. 28 f .
  12. ↑ Lenz passenger shipping company

Web links

Commons : International Academy of Nature Conservation  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 54 ° 19 ′ 29.3 ″  N , 13 ° 32 ′ 1.5 ″  E