Living Lab leader: May-Brith Ohman Nielsen
The Southern Norway Living Labs has four different locations in order to explore complementary landscapes and pollinator challenges compared with the other Butterfly localities.
Two of our localities are family allotment gardening societies (kolonihager); Rodeløkkens Kolonihager in central urban Oslo and Kongsgård Kolonihager in a semi-urban area of Kristiansand. They also belong to different climate zones. Oslo has eastern inland climate and Kristiansand southern coastal and. They differ with regard to winter temperatures, sun and wind. Gardening communities like these exist all over Europe. In allotments gardener engage in high intensity cultivation of a variety of edible and decorative plants on limited plots of land within a wider gardening community space. These allotment associations gardens can have some of the highest biodiversity of plants of in their areas. Studies indicate that the variety of pollinators is broad too. In these locations we work together with the local allotment associations and their members, 150 individual gardening families in Rodeløkken and 110 in Kongsgård respectively.
Together we will; register all plants cultivated in these gardens, their traits and flowering time; collect and analyse pollinators and pollination data in accordance with the Butterfly protocol; engage in discussions with allotment gardeners about their experience and perspectives on plant-pollinator-human relationships and the key concepts of the project; engage in education and community-based exchange among the gardeners; assess and implement realistic interventions to improve pollinator stewardship. Because we cooperate with existing organisations, institutions with practices, rules and regulations we know well we expect high variety of data and high degree of interaction.
The third location is very much coastal and has a different theme. Landøy, an island at the southernmost tip of Norway (2,2 x 0,5 km) had coastal heathland landscape until fisheries collapsed in the 1960s. The locals moved away and grazing, burning and maintenance of the heathlands stopped. Alien species, planted for forests, got invasive and turned most of the island into a dense inaccessible bushland with massive juniper cover. Landøy old village and surrounding landscape are now protected cultural heritage. A new generation of owners has recently restored many of the traditional and the local community association, Landøy and Udøy Vel, has restored the old school and community house and converted the school into a museum telling the local history. To restore the landscape, however, one needs to restore the traditional heathlands. Restoring the coastal heathland on the island is key for pollinator restoration and culture conservation.
At this locality 5 major landowners, some smaller landowners and groups of local voluntaries have join in a Butterfly initiative to clear the bush and restore the traditional pollinator-rich coastal heathlands. This includes, logging, cutting and burning the invasive species to restore the heathland plants and to analyse the changes in pollinator species and populations that follows. Also at Landøy there is high participant involvement, particularly on the heathland recovery work. Here to we will engage in exchange with participants about their experiences, stories and perspectives and we will develop resources to chare with other communities who want to take up similar initiatives with historical agency, pollinator stewardship and eco-litteracy high om their agenda.
Our last location is at Bryne, Grødalandstunet at Jærmuseet, the agricultural museum of Norway. This builds on an existing Living Lab that set out to convert a classic “robot lawn” to flower meadow. In a classical set up from agricultural research the museum has organized a field of test-strips for school students to be the researchers and assess plant and pollinator diversity in the different strips. In each individual strip the challenge, to transform monoculture lawn into biodiverse flower meadow is tested by different approaches; seed types, soil types, seed vs plug plants, fertilization, cutting practice etc. School classes, who visit the museum trough the growing season, investigate how the plants and plant society and biodiversity develops. This is part of the museum´s extensive interactions with shools, education and children.
Our last location is at Nærbø, Grødalandstunet at Jærmuseet, the agricultural museum of Norway. This builds on an existing Living Lab that set out to convert a classic “robot lawn” to flower meadow. In a classical set up from agricultural research the museum has organized a field of test-strips for school students to be the researchers and assess plant and pollinator diversity in the different strips. In each individual strip the challenge, to transform monoculture lawn into biodiverse flower meadow is tested by different approaches; seed types, soil types, seed vs plug plants, fertilization, cutting practice etc. School classes, who visit the museum trough the growing season, investigate how the plants and plant society and biodiversity develops. This is part of the museum´s extensive interactions with shools, education and children. Read more about the project at Grødalandstunet here.
Norwegian Website
Norwegian Living Lab in the news
Can we make pollinating insects more viable again?
Kan vi gjøre pollinerende insekter mer levedyktige igjen? (In Norwegian)
Satte fyr på øy for å redde truet natur (In Norwegian)
Branner skal redde bier og humler – Vi Menn article on the Norwegian Living Lab’s heathland restoration efforts on Landøy in Lindesnes (In Norwegian, behind paywall)