Weltnaturerbe Buchenwälder

Nomination of German Beech Forests as a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site

Germany’s natural beech forests are to be nominated as a UNESCO Natural World Heritage site under the World Heritage Convention. Four of Germany’s federal states (Bundesländer) – Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Thuringia and Hesse – are jointly preparing a nomination of a German beech forest cluster as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site. The nomination should be ready by autumn 2009 and will be submitted to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee for its consideration in early 2010.

Cultural properties currently dominate the World Heritage List, especially in Europe. Germany’s only Natural World Heritage site at present is the Messel Pit in Hesse, which was inscribed on the World Heritage List for its fossil richness. The German Tentative List, too, only included one natural site until recently, namely the Wadden Sea. However, in February 2007, a further natural site was added, namely the Beech Primeval Forests of Germany.

True primeval beech forests disappeared from Germany long ago, with only fragments remaining. Such forests are now only found in East Central Europe, mainly in the Carpathians. Since June last year, a cluster of ten of these components in Slovakia and Ukraine has been designated a World Natural Heritage site. However, for some time now, forests in national parks or natural forest reserves (Naturwaldreservate) have been able to revert to their natural development in Germany as well. The five areas proposed for nomination and presented on this website represent the most valuable remnants of extensive semi-natural beech forest stands in Germany.

From today, this website will offer you the latest, constantly updated information about the nomination. You can access information for download and find out about related events. Pages which are not yet available are still under construction but will go live very soon.