So, how many different leaves can you recognise in the picture above? storksbill, grass, clover, marguerites, wild carrots… There are a huge amount of apps to help recognise what we have… Each of these sites also gives a huge amount of information about how we can help preserve biodiversity.

Useful Apps

Nabu is a great place to start for recognising birds and other common organisms. http://www.nabu.de There are also really good apps for learning about birds and plants. I use Nabu Vogelwelt and Nabu Insektenwelt (both in German)

If you are interested in plants, then pl@ntnet is a good introductory app for identifying plants. You can get it and lots of similar ones at Google Play. Wild plants are very important for supporting wildlife and they can also often help humans. Be brave and let parts of your garden or balcony help the environment. Learn more (in German) at https://www.nabu.de/umwelt-und-ressourcen/oekologisch-leben/balkon-und-garten/pflanzen/wildpflanzen/22968.html

or in English https://www.projectnoah.org/missions/20964003

When you feel more confident, Naturgucker is a huge German wide database relying on community science to record organisms https://naturgucker.de/naturgucker.html

Places to visit

If you prefer to be onsite, then the Botanical Gardens in Dahlem is great place to start. The botanical museum and botanical school will certainly keep you occupied… https://www.bgbm.org/

The Natural History museum is another fount of information… It often has lectures and exhibitions about sustainability. https://www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/

The Ökowerk Teufelssee offers a lot of courses to look at biodiversity, which you can go to as part of a class or as an interested individual https://www.oekowerk.de/angebote/schulen/angebote-sortiert-nach-themen/

The Jugendforschungsschiff at Tegeler See also offers a lot of interesting courses which allow people to learn a lot more about biodiversity. https://www.jugendforschungsschiff.com/images/Ferienprogramm_Jugendforschungsschiff.pdf

Getting involved

If you feel like getting more involved in helping to preserve biodiversity in Berlin, here are several projects you can get involved in: https://www.berlin.de/senuvk/natur_gruen/biologische_vielfalt/de/aktiv/index.shtml