IANUS Peacelab

Biodiversity research has always been conducted in large part by amateurs who published in natural history journals, identified and named new species, and also conducted behavioral biology and described ecosystems. Many joined together to form associations that are still active today, which is why the crisis diagnosis of insect mortality in particular owes much to the Krefeld Association for Entomology. Also motivated by civil society and not the result of scientific policy advice are many locally implemented strategies for insect conservation – urban gardening or guerilla gardening, but also the spread of beekeeping or insect hotels. Here, the city becomes a laboratory of citizen science biodiversity research.

At the IANUS Peacelab at the lab3 Labspace in Darmstadt, different forms of peaceful and conflictual coexistence are to be made tangible and usable. What may sound abstract is quite simply the coexistence of insects and humans on and in a green space, that is, the way they perceive and interact with each other. In this context, the choice of mowing corresponds to a real experiment that puts people and insects in different relationships, to each other and with each other. These forms of coexistence are in turn appreciated very differently by ecology, the humanities and social sciences, and also ecosystem management. In a first step, approaches and concepts are compiled in an idea room within the framework of the project. This is an informal, movable, expandable exhibition physically, for example on pinboards, that literally provides a space for impulse forums, for a hackathon and citizen science project developments. Metaphorically, the green space is thus asserted as a “public space” that is biodiverse in the political sense – here the design of a future living environment is also technically negotiated. Life in the green space participates in urban life, and vice versa. Two to three of the projects from the idea phase are to be pursued in the longer term, prototyped and tested. Four to six impulse forums planned jointly with BUND also serve to develop new mediation formats. Finally, the network of initiatives and citizen science actors gathered in the Ideas Space will also develop an initial concept for a paper on “Strategies and Perspectives” that goes beyond the funding period.