FORESTRY & FARMING
THE CONNECTION NURTURING MAN AND NATURE
The Forestry & Farming division looks after and manages a landscape area of 1,870 hectares, distributed over the Wustrow peninsula (1,000 ha), the Wittenbeck Golf and Hotel Resort (100 ha) and the Vorder Bollhagen Estate (770 ha). These beautiful natural areas are home to a rich vegetation and fauna of partly rare species in nature and landscape conservation areas as well as organic farming on the edge of a drinking water protection area of the highest category. The extensive areas are managed according to the most modern ecological methods and technologies by experienced experts under sustainable principles.
The organic farm Vorder Bollhagen on the Baltic Sea, only one kilometre from Heiligendamm, is an agricultural enterprise on 770 hectares of farmland (500 hectares of arable land and 270 hectares of permanent grassland), which grows market fruits as well as table and seed potatoes using organic methods and keeps its animals such as cattle, calves, chickens, ducks and geese in a species-appropriate manner. A special feature are the mobile chicken coops, which have been awarded the Förderpreis ökologischer Landbau. The estate offers its own organic products as well as supplementary organic foodstuffs, most of which come from the region, and other organic goods in its farm shop, which has meanwhile become a small organic supermarket.
The Vorder Bollhagen estate is a member of the Bioland farming association. The careful transformation over many years from a farm that was intensively farmed in GDR times to an organic farm was awarded a prize by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in 2009: Since then, the Vorder Bollhagen estate has been considered an “organic farming demonstration farm” under the Federal Organic Farming Programme. Only 242 organic farms are selected for this programme throughout Germany – not even a good 1 percent of all 23,000 organic farms in Germany. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, there are only four other demonstration farms. In 2018, the estate became a consultation farm where prospective organic farmers can get information and training. Of course, the estate is also a training farm.
The municipality of Bad Doberan, to which Vorder Bollhagen belongs, also benefits from the work of the Vorder Bollhagen estate – such as the renaturation of the Bollhäger Fließ, which is of great importance for regional drinking water production. The area is now classified as a drinking water protection area of the highest category.
Further information: www.gut-vorder-bollhagen.de
