Biological diversity: Land wants to designate more land as wilderness areas

The state government wants to designate further nature conservation areas as wilderness areas.

Biological diversity: Land wants to designate more land as wilderness areas

The state government wants to designate further nature conservation areas as wilderness areas. In this way, Brandenburg wants to implement the nationwide specifications of the National Strategy on Biological Diversity (NBS). It is currently being examined whether certain state forest areas in the Spreewald and areas belonging to foundations can be designated as wilderness areas, as can be seen from the response from the Ministry of the Environment in Potsdam to a request from the CDU parliamentary group.

The foundation areas, on which natural development without forestry use is to take place in the future, include areas of the "Tangersdorfer Heide" in the Uckermark and areas on the edge of the "Natural Paradise Grünhaus" in Lower Lusatia.

According to the strategy adopted by the federal government in 2007, natural development should take place on two percent of Germany's area. Brandenburg has only achieved half of this goal with the core zones of the biosphere reserves with around one percent of its state area. In addition to the two percent wilderness target, Brandenburg also wants to ensure natural forest development on ten percent of its state forest area.

The Brandenburg Natural Landscape Foundation, which owns an area of ​​665 hectares in the Tangersdorfer Heide, advocates the expansion of further areas as wilderness areas. For managing director Andreas Meißner, such areas are a "treasure trove of the future," as he told the German Press Agency. "Our goal is to buy more land on a large scale in order to put it under protection." The dpa learned that the planned designation of neighboring forest areas, which are under the Brandenburg State Forestry Service, is also being praised by the Nabu Foundation Grünhaus Nature Park.

On the other hand, efforts by the state government to designate forest areas in the Spreewald as wilderness areas are met with "great skepticism", as the CDU state parliamentarians Julian Brüning and Roswitha Schier wrote in their request to the state government. It is precisely in this landscape, which has been classified as a UNESCO biosphere reserve, that management is worth protecting because it is in harmony with nature. The question therefore arises as to whether the designation of wilderness areas in the Spreewald was correct in terms of nature conservation.

In the answer, the Ministry of the Environment assures that the forest use in the areas of angling, fishing, hunting and maintenance of the river will not change with the newly designated protection areas in the Spreewald. It said that no new protection area ordinances would be issued.

According to the ministry, the areas "Prösa", "Zschornoer Wald", "Rüthnicker Heide" and "Weißhaus" owned by the German Federal Environmental Foundation have already been included in the one percent wilderness target of the state government. This also applies to areas formerly used by the military in Jüterbog, Lieberose and Heidehof, which belong to the Brandenburg Nature Conservation Foundation.

Response to request

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