Background:

As a party to the  UNESCO World Heritage Convention, Germany is committed to protecting natural and cultural heritage of ‘outstanding universal value’. Article 3 of the Convention requires state parties to identify potential World Heritage sites on their territory. Periodic progress reporting on the Convention’s implementation in Germany (under Article 29) has revealed deficits regarding natural heritage sites. This is reflected in the unequal weighting of cultural and natural heritage properties in the current World Heritage List for Germany (only three natural heritage properties and two cultural heritage properties in a total of 36 World Heritage properties).

The project:

The German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) advises the Federal Environment Ministry (BMU) on implementing the World Heritage Convention with regard to natural heritage sites. It also helps the sixteen German states prepare site nominations for the UNESCO World Heritage List. Various R&D projects have been or are being carried out for this purpose.

Identifying potential German World Heritage nominations:

Archaeopteryx, a prehistoric bird, at the Solnhofer Plattenkalke potential World Natural Heritage site (photo: Altmühltal nature park)

The aim of the first research and development project in 2004 was to identify natural sites and organically evolved cultural landscapes in Germany that are potentially suited for nomination as UNESCO World Heritage sites. In this way, Germany met its obligation to identify natural properties that may be suitable for nomination as UNESCO World Heritage sites. Serial nominations (clusters) and cross-border nominations were included as much of Europe’s natural heritage can only be properly appreciated in an international context. The proposals were compared regarding their chances of success. The German Wadden Sea was left out as it was already included in the German nomination list at the time of the study. Among other things, the study revealed potential for nominating German beech forests as world natural heritage. This proposal was taken up and subjected to a feasibility study in a further R&D project.

Nomination of German beech forests as natural heritage:

Beech forests in Jasmund National Park, Island of Rügen (photo: B. Engels)

With the assistance of the German Environment Ministry (BMU), the German states of Brandenburg, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Thuringia prepared the nomination of a German beech forest cluster as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site. The cluster consists of selected parts of the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park in Hesse, the Hainich National Park in Thuringia, the Jasmund and the Müritz National Parks in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and the Grumsin total reserve in the Schorfheide-Chorin biosphere reserve in Brandenburg. The decision to go ahead with the nomination was based on the findings of the feasibility study mentioned above. This recommended combining the areas concerned in a transnational nomination together with Slovakia and the Ukraine. These two states had already jointly nominated a region of ancient beech forests in the Carpathians for consideration as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site in 2007, and the World Heritage Committee decided to inscribe the region to the World Heritage List in July 2007.  on 25th of June 2011 the Committee accepted the extension of the Slovak-Ukrainian beech forest World Natural Heritage (Primeval Beech forests of the Carpathians"  with the "Ancient Beech forests of Germany". In this context, several trilateral meetings with the Slovak and Ukrainian environment ministries, representatives of the German states and experts have been held. These meetings resulted in the agreement of closer trilateral cooperation in matters relating to UNESCO World Natural Heritage sites, with activities focusing on the  trinational beech forest World Heritage site.

Nomination of the Wadden Sea:

A joint German-Dutch nomination of the Wadden Sea as a UNESCO World Heritage site was decided upon at the 10th Trilateral Government Conference on the Protection of the Wadden Sea (Schiemonnikoog, Netherlands, November 2005). The resolution was preceded by regional consultations. A bilateral project group prepared the nomination dossier for submission to the World Heritage Centre in Paris on 1 February 2008. The work is supported by the Trilateral Wadden Sea Secretariat. In June 2009, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee has inscribed the German-Dutch Waddensea on the World Heritage list.

In nominating the Wadden Sea as a World Natural Heritage site, the Netherlands and Germany aim to meet their obligations under the World Heritage Convention and protect the Wadden Sea as a key ecosystem and world natural heritage for future generations.

Activities under the Alpine Convention:

After the World Heritage Committee had turned down several nominations from the Alpine region in recent years and repeatedly called for greater cooperation between Alpine states in preparing nominations, the Alpine states established a working group under the framework of the Alpine Convention at the start of 2007. The main purpose of the working group is enhanced coordination and cooperation in nominating World Heritage sites in the Alpine region. This is to help identify potential World Heritage sites in the Alps and to ensure that the Alps are suitably represented in the World Heritage List through high-quality nominations. The area of the Berchtesgaden National Park may form the German part of a serial nomination. The working group has submitted a report to the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention at the Tenth Alpine Conference. The mandate for the working group has been extended.

Publications:

Plachter, H., Kruse, A. and Kruckenberg, H. (2006): Screening potenzieller deutscher Naturwerte für das UNESCO-Welterbeübereinkommen.
 BfN-Skripten 177 (PDF file, 2.9 MB)

Project information:

Duration: Started 2003

Programme: Research and development projects

Project partners: Prof. Harald Plachter (University of Marburg), Dr. Alexandra Kruse and Dr. Helmut Kruckenberg (Büro für Landschaft & Service), and Buchenwaldinstitut e.V.

Project management at BfN:

Section I 2.3, International Nature Conservation
Contact: Barbara Engels (barbara.engels@bfn.de)

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