Collaboration with the town of Burghausen

We had the honour of receiving an invitation to a lobby visit to the Bavarian state parliament in the centre of Munich. Remarkably, during our visit we happened to cross paths with the deputy mayor of Burghausen, a meeting at which the story of RefuBees resonated enormously. Burghausen is a front-runner in innovation and ecological awareness, a status enriched by its impressive history of educational institutions covering a wide range of subjects, from art and cultural performance academies to rigorous scientific and technical disciplines.

Partnership with Burghausen

a strategic plan for ecological innovation

As a result, a series of meetings was agreed, marking the start of our joint efforts to develop a strategic plan that would place the town in a broader framework with the potential to take Bavaria’s biodiversity infrastructure to new heights. This is a further step towards Mayor Florian Schneider’s concrete ideas on how he wants to make the ‘most beautiful town in the world’ even more lovable and liveable, so that Burghausen shines far beyond regional borders with its cosmopolitanism and versatility and its residents can be proud of it.

The TUM Science & Study Centre in Burghausen

an ideal place for academic discussion

In the immediate vicinity of the town lies the former Raitenhaslach monastery, which has been converted in collaboration with the Technical University of Munich into the TUM Science & Study Centre. It is an ideal setting for an international, academic discourse that fits seamlessly with our aims and those of Burghausen.

BeeTotems in Burghausen

Selection and promotion of native wild bee species

In collaboration with the town we developed a plan for a series of case studies with BeeTotems, to be placed strategically at various locations in Burghausen. These installations were intended to focus on specific native wild bee species. To identify the most suitable species for our project, we sought advice from experts in the field, including specialists from the Bavarian Academy for Nature Conservation and Landscape Management (ANL) and the Natural History Museum in Salzburg. These institutions, which are based near Burghausen, played a crucial role in selecting the right bee species.

Photo: Florian Schneider (mayor) and Stefan Angstl (deputy mayor) at the twice-yearly ceremony on 1 May, when the maypole, the ‘local totem variant’, is raised.