Nature protection by and with human help

The qual­i­ty of nature pro­tec­tion is due to the human inter­ven­tion over hun­dreds of years.

Agri­cul­tur­al use (pas­tures and fields) pre­vent­ed the for­est to extend on the site and was able to keep the open char­ac­ter of the landscape.

There­fore human inter­ven­tion can be said as the third ele­ment, form­ing the site as the pro­tect­ed nature reserve it is.

Soil prop­er­ties              Cli­mate properties

Traditional land use as a example for future care

Today the Aar­nescht is no longer used for agri­cul­tur­al pur­pos­es. Arti­fi­cial mea­sures are nec­es­sary to keep the high nat­ur­al qual­i­ty of the site. One of these is the uproot­ing of shrubs on the semi arid grass­lands, a task the “Ami­cale de l’Aarnescht” is per­fect­ly tak­ing care of.

Human use and care

For the future it is impor­tant to remem­ber the old tra­di­tion­al use of the site.

The agri­cul­tur­al use of the semi arid grass­lands has to be start­ed again as for exam­ple with sheep graz­ing. When they are eat­ing the buds of the young shrubs, they active­ly help pre­vent­ing a fur­ther veg­e­ta­tion encroachment.

As for the local farm­ers, who play an active part in the con­ver­sa­tion of the domes­tic tra­di­tion­al land­scape, new inter­est­ing prospects are pos­si­ble, as for exam­ple mer­chan­dis­ing nat­ur­al local prod­ucts with a spe­cial­ized label.

The Aar­nescht can­not be influ­enced by the new inten­sive agri­cul­tur­al evo­lu­tion, as it still rep­re­sents a remain­ing part of old tra­di­tion­al farm­ing in Niederanven.