For a Vibrant Campus

On the initiative of University President Günter M. Ziegler, the university has declared 2024 to be the Year of Biodiversity. With this statement, Freie Universität is emphasizing the particular importance and urgency of this issue that has occupied a prominent position in research and teaching at the university for decades.

The loss of biodiversity has reached an alarming rate in recent decades. As a renowned research and education institution, which is also home to the Botanic Garden Berlin, Freie Universität bears a special responsibility not only to impart knowledge but also to make an active contribution to the preservation and promotion of the environment.

Freie Universität Berlin not only looks back on a wide range of biodiversity research, but also on more than twenty years of activities in environmental and sustainability management. With the Year of Biodiversity, the university is acknowledging both its function as a role model in the area of biodiversity promotion and its responsibility in this regard. The primary goal is to establish as much biodiversity as possible on campus in the future.

By formulating a biodiversity strategy, the university intends to incorporate the promotion of biodiversity into Freie Universität’s long-term planning and anchor it more firmly in its established structures. The strategy lays out concrete goals and a roadmap of future measures. Cooperation and exchange with neighbors from the Max Planck Society and the District of Steglitz-Zehlendorf are also an important building block in the successful implementation of an integrated biodiversity strategy.

On May 22, 2024, the Biodiversity Strategy will be presented to the university public at an event in the Botanic Garden.