With locusts to the environmental prize

Falco Eigner

The Eigner family simply feels at home in nature. Between meadows and paths, they love watching insects. Marko Eigner is a conservation volunteer in Chemnitz and has passed on his passion for nature to his son Falco. The 16-year-old has spent a lot of time in nature from an early age. His research on grasshoppers has already won him several prizes at the City of Chemnitz Environmental Award and Jugend forscht!

Where does your interest in the environment come from?
Falco Eigner : I used to go out with my father and observe nature with him. He was particularly interested in butterflies. I used to wander through the meadows with him on his projects. But I found it much more interesting to see what kind of creatures they were, always jumping away and making noises. And so I started to occupy myself with grasshoppers.

What do you mean by occupying yourself? What exactly are you doing?
Back then, I started to identify grasshoppers. I used a very old book for this. Then I noticed behavioural patterns and had ideas about what I could investigate.

What are you currently working on?
There are no more grasshoppers outside at the moment. Last year, I started recording grasshoppers in Chemnitz. I also took part in the city of Chemnitz's environmental prize. I started looking for areas that represent the different types of biotopes that exist in Chemnitz. Now the project needs to be expanded to really cover the widest possible range of species in Chemnitz.

How can your research results then be used for further work? What purpose are you pursuing with it?
My last Environmental Award project was also about how to better protect grasshoppers. I investigated how agriculture affects grasshoppers - i.e. meadow mowing and grazing. My research can help to better protect grasshoppers and develop ideas on what can be done to help the animals survive.

How much time do you invest in your work?
That depends on how extensive the surveys are. Some surveys take an incredible amount of time. I have to walk the meadows to really record the species spectrum and numbers. There are usually many areas. These are spread over different days and at different times of the year. For my last project, I made three inspections of different areas. And then, of course, a lot of time is spent analysing them. It's just interesting to observe what the animals can do.

What can they do?
The interesting thing is how they communicate with each other through calls. These can be very diverse. For example, some species can only be distinguished from each other by their calls - visually, this is no longer possible. This communication with each other is also interesting. When we are on holiday and I hear some kind of noise, I immediately have to leave the path and go and see what it is.

While Falco talks about his research and work with grasshoppers, his father Marko Eigner sits next to him at the large table in the nature conservation centre in the Adelsberg district of Chemnitz. He has taken his son into forests and meadows from an early age. He has also had a lasting influence on his daughter Camilla.

Does it make you proud when you hear your son speak here?
Yes, definitely. My field is actually butterflies, where I have specialised really deeply. Professionally, I also deal with many other areas of nature. But the fact that Falco has found his own topic in the field of grasshoppers is really great!

What are your tasks as a volunteer nature conservation assistant in Chemnitz?
I don't have a specific area that I look after. I look across all areas to see what the insects and butterflies are up to. I look for special features throughout Chemnitz or where problems are occurring. People often bring me animals or send me photos along the lines of: We've found a very special animal, what is it? Things like that.

Where does your interest in the environment and nature come from?
As a child, I found a swallowtail caterpillar in our garden, brought it to the butterfly and then let it out. That sparked my interest in the subject. I've been interested in butterflies ever since and have passed it on to my family. My older daughter is now studying geoecology, and as a child and teenager she took part in the Chemnitz Environmental Award and Jugend forscht (Youth Research) competitions and researched the effect of light on moths.

Environmental Award - how long have you been involved?
Falco has been involved five times. My daughter was involved before that - I think I've been involved for about seven years. I've supervised several working groups but only one at the moment because the funding and financing of such projects is determined by the number of participants. I have worked on various projects with different groups. I try to initiate projects in which the pupils can then deepen their knowledge. And with these projects, we then applied for the City of Chemnitz's environmental award.

What's the beauty of the environmental award? Why should a young person apply for this award?
It's a great platform to publicise your project and show it to others. These are often things that don't attract a lot of media attention and don't necessarily interest the masses. The Environmental Award allows you to show and present your research and its results. It's also a kind of exchange - you can see what others are doing. And it's a great way of recognising the work that children and young people do.

Do you have a favourite project that you have supported?
You can't really say. The ideas that you have for research always develop over time. It keeps growing. And that's the beauty of it.

Working groups at schools, like the one Marko Eigner is in charge of, can only be maintained if there is a committed person behind them. That's why such study groups are not offered at every school. Without the voluntary work and support of the Chemnitz Lower Nature Conservation Authority, such projects would not be possible.

If I have a great project and would like to take part in the Environmental Award, how can I apply?
The closing date for applications for the next Environmental Award is 17 April 2017. You normally submit a portfolio with research results, pictures and texts. In kindergartens and primary schools, there is still a lot of drawing and these pictures are handed in. From the age of around 15, it's actually a specialised paper that you submit and is assessed by a jury.

Falco, you've been involved in the environmental prize for five years now, you continue to research diligently and are deeply immersed in the topic of grasshoppers: Do you want to get into the subject professionally later on, or should it remain more of a hobby?
Actually, it should remain more of a hobby. That means I'm already planning to do a biology degree programme after I finish school. And then to join my father's company, a planning office for landscape planning.

Chemnitz has a very large green area, there are many meadows and forests here. Are there any special features that are rarely found elsewhere?
We actually have many interesting habitats in and around Chemnitz. The Zeisigwald forest has very beautiful corners. There are very interesting butterfly species in the northern area in particular. In the Chemnitz floodplains there are very valuable areas for butterflies and grasshoppers. You can find really interesting and rare species there, such as the marsh grasshopper. From a distance, it looks like a normal meadow. But it is a very valuable area.