Jehander - HeidelbergCement

Objective

The conservation objective is to find a solution to combine an active sand pit with a flourishing insect life, including both highly threatened species and a general high diversity:

Context

This sand and gravel pit started large-scale sand excavation in early 1950’s and continued until 1979 when it was abandoned. In 2005 the excavations started again and have continued since then. A governmental financed insect survey could prove that this pit hosts remarkable insect species. For example, here lives the endangered sand wasp Bembix rostrata which origins from Central Europe but is classified as threatened in most countries where it still is distributed. Lindormsnäs hosts the very northern known modern populations of Bembix rostrata. During the insect survey in 2006 a great variety of other red-listed insect species was found. From the insect survey this pit is known for a diverse and numerous aculeate wasp fauna.

Solution

The county administration and the municipal environmental board have incorporated this site in to their nature conservation programme and will start conservation actions soon.

Result

So far no practical conservation actions have been undertaken. Possible actions that have been discussed are logging of trees, clearing from shrubs, removing grass layers of steep slopes, creating steeper slopes and reaching an agreement with the Jehander company to create an ecological management of the site.

Partners

The County Administration Board in Stockholm.