How mowing less lets flowers bloom along Austria’s ‘Green Belt’

On a meadow in south-eastern Austria near the border with Slovenia, Josef Hadler works his tractor to mow several acres of land in order to better preserve the biodiversity of the plot.

“Yesterday, a buzzing followed me at a distance of only five meters,” the cattle producer told AFP in the municipality of Sankt Anna Am Aigen in the Province of Styria.

Thanks to Hadler’s efforts for the premises Nature Conservation Association, the endemic species of flora and fauna that have disappeared elsewhere were able to survive on the 15 hectares (37 acres) of protected land that he manages.

Located where the iron curtain formerly separated Austria from the old Yugoslavia, the fields near the Slovenian border are rich in biodiversity, precisely because the area was once an unemployed area during the Cold War.

It is also part of the broader “European green belt” along the old iron curtain, a corridor of interconnected wild paradise which extends over 12,500 kilometers (just over 7700 miles) from Norway to Turkey.

“No one would dare to build their house directly on the border (with Slovenia), which has therefore remained green,” said Johannes Gepp, president of the local environmental protection organization, Natorschutzbund, who buys farmers’ land.

Hadler Mows the meadow once or twice a year. The former owner, who had cultivated corn there, willingly sold the dry land 15 years ago to acquire another plot offering better performance.

“We went from a monoculture to 70 to 80 species per 100 square meters” by eliminating fertilizer and reducing the frequency of mowing, said the director general of Natorschutzbund, Markus Ehrenpaar.

HADLER MODES generally its fields five times a year for silage bullets and hay to feed its cattle.

But he observed that mowing more frequently prevented flowers from growing, while mowing less often, many native species flourish or even come back.

Among them are the Grand Burnet – the only plant on which two different species of butterflies feed exclusively – or the web spider of poisonous nursery.

Maintaining fields is essential because it prevents the proliferation of herbs at the expense of wild flowers.

‘Wonderful natural jewels’

Hadler receives compensation for his work and can harvest hay, which he uses as a litter for his cattle.

According to Andrea Pock, the mayor of Sankt Anna Am Aigen, the “wonderful natural jewels” also have an educational value for biology lessons.

“A form of sweet tourism has developed,” said the 46 -year -old mayor, adding that “many people come to see the flowers and observe insects”.

Nearby panels tell the dark past of the fortified and extracted border, which once sought to dissuade people from behind the iron curtain to cross the west.

In the present, crossing points that allow the genetic mixture of plants have been created to ensure long -term survival of so dense and various areas.

The effort costs millions of euros each year because “the land is very expensive,” said Gepp.

The Region, the Government and the European Union have all contributed financially to this expensive revival.

And the issues are high: Austria is home to 1,300 kilometers from the “Green Belt from Central Europe”, which he shares with the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia.

But at present, only a third is protected on the environment.

© 2025 AFP