Throwback: Action Week 2024

“Achtung Artenvielfalt!” entered its fourth round from October 7 to 13, 2024.

A week dedicated to biodiversity – over 100 events took place nationwide as part of “Achtung Artenvielfalt!”.

We were able to marvel at endangered species in botanical gardens, listen to birds singing and bats chirping at dusk – or learn about economics from doughnuts. Schoolchildren and scientists shared their wealth of knowledge about biodiversity in podcasts, and museums offered special tours to show us what needs to be protected. On guided tours of nature reserves, we learned how biodiversity can flourish when we give it the space it needs. And in workshops, we learned how we can create this space in our own gardens.

Since 2021, the action week has been raising public awareness of species and biodiversity loss, highlighting possible solutions and, above all, inspiring people to protect this colourful diversity.

“Achtung Artenvielfalt!” is coordinated by the BMFTR Research Initiative for the Conservation of Biodiversity (FEdA) in collaboration with renowned partners. In 2024, the coordination team included the Association of German Natural Science Research Collections (DNFS) and the Leibniz Natural History Museums – the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, the Senckenberg Museums in Frankfurt/Main, Görlitz and Dresden, and the Leibniz Institute for Biodiversity Change Analysis in Bonn and Hamburg. As part of the German Sustainability Action Days, which placed a special focus on biodiversity in 2024, we cooperated with the Community Project Sustainability.

Video statements on the 2024 “Achtung Artenvielfalt!” action week (German version only)

Dr Mai Thi Nguyen Kim greets us – and the “Achtung Artenvielfalt!” action week – backstage at her show “maithinkX” and gives one of many possible answers to the question: “What does biodiversity actually have to do with me?”

Ralph Caspers, mouse expert and enthusiastic gardener, explains in his greeting for the “Achtung Artenvielfalt!” action week why biodiversity is important for all of us and why it concerns us all.

Dr Eckart von Hirschhausen shows us why planetary health is important for our human health in ‘”Achtung Artenvielfalt!”.

Prof. Volker Mosbrugger, spokesperson for the FEdA and lifelong biodiversity enthusiast, is using the “Achtung Artenvielfalt!’” action week to urgently remind us that biodiversity needs us all, because nature must thrive so that we too can live healthily and naturally.

Christian Ehrlich takes us into the forest for the 2024 “Achtung Artenvielfalt!” action week, because: The forest is an important habitat that also has a lot to offer us humans – not just for jogging, relaxing and recreation.