Press Release from 09/17/2009

Lusatian Theses on the Management of Inherited Post-Mining Landscapes

Exchange of experiences at IBA conference attracts enormous interest – guiding principles of the IBA go into all the world

Großräschen. The eyes of the world were on Lusatia for three days as the IBA Terraces of the International Building Exhibition (IBA) Fürst-Pückler-Land played host to a professional networking event. Some 200 international experts from all five continents had been invited to Großräschen to discuss the problems and potential of the legacy of mining at the IBA conference "Opportunity: Post-Mining Landscape". They took away many different suggestions and the ten guiding principles of the IBA on dealing with post-mining landscapes with a view to participating in further international debate in the next few months. The general feeling among delegates was that the way in which the IBA had worked with the LMBV, as the responsible mine redevelopment company, and with the other partners on the development and on the project was exemplary for other countries.

Mining regions are faced with a huge transformation process. What value can be put on the landscape after mining? How should it be developed? It was the first time that an international conference had been devoted to these issues, with the focus on the problems and potential of mining regions. "The IBA has thus taken the initiative in provoking international discussion of the issues, such as the management of the transformation process, the renewal and redevelopment of the landscape, and the formation of a new identity on the basis often guiding principles on dealing with post-mining landscapes", said IBA Director Rolf Kuhn. "They are now on their way round the world, gathering input and comments from further experts, and the result will be announced at the IBA finale in 2010", added Professor Kuhn.

Caroline Digby of the Post-Mining Alliance, an international network which cooperates with organisations worldwide and instigates sustainable solutions, spoke about creative methods which had already been applied in other parts of the world to manage the legacy of the mining era. Her examples, which included the Eden Project in Cornwall, the Gotland racetrack in Sweden on the site of the former limestone quarry, and the football stadium built in a pit in the Portuguese town of Braga, illustrated what can be done with land previously used for mining. The Australian environmental adviser, Corinne Unger, and a Chinese delegation from the mining region of Xuzhou were evidently impressed by the successful collaboration of Federal Government, Federal State, Lusatia-Spreewald regional planning group, LMBV and IBA. Chief of the Brandenburg Minister-President's Office Clemens Appel endorsed the projects of the International Building Exhibition, calling them a "driving force for change in Lusatia". The IBA was making an indispensable contribution to the development of post-mining landscapes, he continued, adding that its projects must be continued in the Energieregion Lausitz-Spreewald GmbH when the IBA closes its doors in 2010.

As the discussion moved to legal issues, some experts argued for a "special status" for mining regions. They see the post-mining landscapes as an "experimental ground" where all the stops need to be pulled out to push through promising projects in order to change the public's perspective as quickly as possible. One point on which all were agreed was that the people have to be actively involved in the regeneration process in order to forge a new identity. Christina Martinez-Fernandez of the OECD, who spoke about employment strategies in mining regions, emphasised the enormous value of these human resources.

A Jovis Verlag publication on the conference will be available in April 2010 to coincide with the start of the IBA finale.

The discussion provoked by the EU research project "ReSOURCE" is also set to continue in Großräschen now and in the future. The project brief is to investigate the potential of various European regions in which mining is coming to an end or has already ended. The project partners from Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary want to develop common sustainable solutions by the year 2012 in order to increase the competitive ability of these mining regions. Initial analyses show that the regions are at different stages in negotiating their way through the structural change. Visions and project development are already well advanced in some regions while in other districts the process is only just beginning. The German partners are the former hard coal mining region around Zwickau-Lugau-Oelsnitz and the former copper slate mining region of Mansfeld-Südharz.
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