FORESTS IN GERMANY,    FORESTS IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

The National Park Bayerischer Wald was founded in 1970 as the first national park in Germany. Today we have 14 national parks in exciting landscapes in Germany (see figure below). Especially attractive is the glacial shaped floodplain in the National Park Unteres Odertal on the frontier of Poland and Germany.

National Parks in Germany (green areas) (Lencer, 2008) (http://www.bfn.de/0308_nlp.html )

The land area of all parks amounts 194 182 ha (ca. 0.54 % of the federal territory). In 2004 two new areas have been designated as national parks in the western part of Germany. The National Park Eifel and the National Park Kellerwald-Edersee are mainly forest ecosystems, which were underrepresented among the German national parks until then.
5 % of the forest areas in Germany (11.1 million hectares) are Nature reserves. The sign for a nature reserve is a black owl on a yellow background. It was invented by the East German conservationist Kurt Kretschmann in 1950. By the way, the Schorfheide is one of the largest contiguous areas of forest in the eastern part of Germany, about 65 km away from Berlin.
Natura 2000 is a cross-country, pan-European network of conservation areas. The purpose is to protect natural and semi-natural habitats as well as endangered species of wild fauna and flora. The FFH directive from 1992 is the basis for this. The abbreviation stands for: Fauna (wildlife), Flora (plant life) and Habitat (living space of certain species).
Each member state has to designate areas, which are important for endangered living spaces and species. In Germany Natura 2000 became legally binding in 1998. Germany has reported so far 4 621 FFH areas, which cover three bio geographical regions (Alpine, Atlantic and Continental).

Moss on deadwood near Eberswalde, Germany (Astrid Schilling)