Mittenwalder Buckelwiesen in Bavaria

This is the winner of a Diploma.

The hilly meadows around Mittenwald, which are characterized by a corrugated surface, are the largest of their kind still in existence in the Alps. The cultivation of these hilly meadows has been more and more neglected because of structural changes in agriculture as well as mechanization and fertilisation. Nowadays, forests cover the former meadows in many places.

This project aimed to retain and regain the meadows. This has been achieved by removing the undergrowth and by reintroducing traditional mowing by hand and/or grazing sheep and goats. The project immediately acquired the essential support of the local population, farmers and landowners who participated in the deforestation process and in mowing the grass in the first year.

“For the preservation and rehabilitation of an emblematic pre-alpine landscape shaped by man and nature over the centuries, and for the exemplary collaboration between the local communities, municipalities and authorities.”