Nature should be allowed to be nature here: In national parks, animals and plants are largely left to their own devices. There are hunting-free zones, fallen trees are left lying. What began in the Bavarian Forest in 1970 is anchored in the Federal Nature Conservation Act. There are now 16 national parks – and there could be more. But not all sides like this.
In Schleswig-Holstein, for example, the CDU led by Prime Minister Daniel Günther is in favor of more protection for the Baltic Sea – but not in the form of a national park, as the Greens, who provide the environment minister, want. The CDU forestry minister in Baden-Württemberg does not want the expansion of the Black Forest National Park agreed in the green-black coalition agreement – or wants as little of it as possible.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the black-green state government has joined forces to start the search for a second national park. But the SPD district administrator in the Siegen-Wittgenstein district spoke out against an application by the Rothaarkamm including a bison project and criticized the state government for saying that its schedule was too tight. According to a vote by the district council, there should be no waiver of an application for the time being, but the deadline for this should be postponed.
facts and figures
According to the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), the total area of national parks in Germany is a good 1.05 million hectares. A large part of it lies in the sea. On land there are 208,238 hectares. This corresponds to around 0.6 percent of the federal territory.
According to the information, most German national parks are currently still “development national parks”. So they only partially meet the criteria for large-scale, undisturbed natural development. According to the BfN, there are other areas that are suitable as national parks – such as beech forest ecosystems and former military training areas.
A minimum size of 10,000 hectares is recommended for national parks. A BfN spokeswoman explains that smaller protected areas are more affected by external influences such as pollutants. In addition, the “natural dynamics” should be guaranteed to be as undisturbed as possible on 75 percent of the national park areas.
Strengths and weaknesses
An evaluation of all national parks in Germany will run until the end of next year. The main goal is “the identification of strengths and weaknesses and their causes,” as the Association for National Natural Landscapes puts it. Deficits need to be remedied, emphasizes a spokeswoman for the Hainich National Park Administration in Thuringia. “National parks without quality are just a fraudulent label.”
In a first round more than ten years ago, experts analyzed, among other things, the strengths that the general mood towards the national parks among the press, residents and visitors had improved over time and that the protected areas were seen as an important regional attraction – especially by communities and tourism. would be recognized. Weaknesses that emerged included, among other things, few studies on economic effects in the regions and poor connections, for example by public buses, outside of the main season.
Successes and problems
If you ask locally, national park administrations will list lots of examples of how their parks enable nature conservation, recreation and research. In the Bavarian Forest, for example, there are around 1.3 million visitors every year. There is a leadership program with more than 3,000 events. Streams supply large parts of eastern Bavaria with clear drinking water without nitrate pollution exceeding limits.
The Hainich National Park has, among other things, the largest unused deciduous forest area in Germany and more than 2,000 recorded beetle species alone: including new records for Thuringia and Germany as well as rediscoveries of species that were considered extinct. Bird species such as whinchats, corn buntings and red-backed shrikes feel at home here.
And the rare yellow-bellied toad should also have a future here. But a dilemma arises: The animals live in the southern area on a former military training area. These “open land habitats” would become forests again under “let nature be nature” conditions, explains the spokeswoman. That’s why there are grazing projects.
The balance in the Black Forest National Park is sober, where, according to the State Environment Ministry, the number of red deer has not increased since the park was founded, despite more than 3,000 hectares of designated hunting-free game rest zone. And the population of the region’s symbolic animal, the capercaillie, has been shrinking for years. After all, observers counted six more courting roosters this spring than last year.
Criticism and wishes
Loud criticism comes primarily from the forestry industry. Andreas Bitter, President of the Association of German Forest Owners’ Associations, considers national parks to be counterproductive for climate protection and wood supply: “No wood harvesting means no replacement of climate-damaging construction and fuels such as concrete, aluminum, gas and oil.”
The biodiversity in the parks is often no greater than in naturally managed forests. According to Bitter, bark beetles are spreading in many cases. “These can spread to still healthy forests in the neighborhood.” With regard to the Harz, forestry experts from the Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture also emphasize that damage, for example caused by insects, should be monitored very closely and the results should be discussed with all regional actors.
The President of the German Forestry Council, Georg Schirmbeck, also argues with climate change: Precisely because of the rapid progression of climate change, forests need to be converted in a targeted manner. According to him, the fact that the naturally renewable raw material wood is no longer allowed to be used regionally has an impact on jobs for forestry companies, the wood processing industry and the trades beyond the region.
