Argenbühl presses a break: Biosphere area in the queue!

Argenbühl presses a break: Biosphere area in the queue!

In the picturesque region of Allgäu-Oberschwaben, the future of a planned biosphere area is on the brink. The municipality of Argenbühl has decided to put the process on hold for the time being. The municipal council has decided with an overwhelming majority not to get any further into the discussions about the biosphere area until there are clear and detailed cards with zoning. This was initiated by an application by the farmer and municipal council Simon Rimmele (CDU), which cites insufficient communication and the unreliable schedules as the main reasons for this step. According to a report by Schwäbische.de The municipality has not received any further official information since the first information event in January 2023, which has significantly affected trust in the process.

inadequate information and frustration

The application, which was supported by several municipal council members, calls for a clear stopping: If there is no binding map material by the first meeting in the coming year, a final exit from the process will be required. Rimmere, who himself runs a dairy farm, expresses concerns that the authorities may already have specific plans, but hold them back. "I wanted to express the anger and lack of understanding of the non -existent communication and the bad process," he explains.

Franz Bühler, part of the team that heads the test process, contradicts this assumption and emphasizes that the maps shown so far only served as examples. "You were too optimistic and thought it was faster," said Bühler. The meaty mayor Timo Egger explains that personnel bottlenecks and the scope of the work have led to delays. The cards that are now created should provide crucial information about the use and area distribution.

The role of farmers and trust in the process

For many farmers, including Rimmele, trust in the authorities is already badly damaged. Rimme reports on his own experiences with outstanding payments for landscape maintenance that were contractually agreed. "How should you work confidently with such people?" he asks. This skepticism is not unfounded, because many farmers see an additional bureaucratic burden in the biosphere area that is of little use.

The decision of the local council to pause the process was considered critical by Mayor Roland Sauter. He fears that this will make it difficult to access information required. Nevertheless, he recognizes that the long waiting time for the cards cannot be ignored. "On the one hand, it is a fairly long period of time that there are no cards yet," he says.

an uncertain view

The future of the biosphere area in Argenbühl remains uncertain. Rimmere made it clear that he is only ready to get back into the process if the cards are available on time and content. "It depends on it whether this will change my fundamentally critical attitude," he adds. The municipality now has the responsibility to obtain the necessary information in order to regain the trust of farmers and to promote the process. The pressure on those responsible is growing, because time is pushing and the patience of the citizens is not unlimited.