Flower of the Year Campaign in Germany
In 1979, Loki Schmidt, the wife of former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, the Foundation for the Protection of endangered plant that was renamed in 1985 in Nature Conservation Foundation and Hamburg Foundation for the protection of endangered plants. One of the primary purposes of this organization is the choice for the flower of the year, a public education campaign, which was launched in 1980. This campaign aims to inform about the ecological value of wildflowers and their habitats and contribute to a better protection of selected species. The proclamation to the flower of the year is usually in October; for the flower of 2012 was the death of the deceased in 2010, Foundation founder Schmidt, who elected 21.10. requirements for calling. Published in 2003, Schmidt, a book titled " The Flowers of the Year" to the Siegfried Lenz wrote the foreword.
History
In the 1970s, the issue of environmental protection came in the media and politics benefited little attention. Many wild plants were not endangered at this time and in some cases even threatened with extinction. Especially intensive agriculture and monocultures represent a threat to the wild flowers, but also the use of open space as land contributes to the extinction of wild flowers at. On this occasion, Loki Schmidt founded the Foundation for the benefit of endangered plants for the first time the title of " Flower of the Year" awarded to the marsh gentian 1980. Since this title is awarded every year. Be selected wild plants whose existence is endangered in our latitudes; the public should be made aware of the theme of the wild plants protection, so that the rare plants not completely disappear from the landscape. Also the natural Vorkommensort the plants should then be placed into the public consciousness: 2011, attention was, for example, the Moor, the habitat of that flower of the year, the bog lily.