What is a Nature Park about?

Landscapes full of life

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People have been shaping characteristic landscapes for centuries through continuous cultivation. In doing so, valuable habitats are both preserved and maintained for a diverse flora and fauna through careful use.

A nature park has clear aims

Nature parks include landscapes shaped by humans such as moors, alpine pastures, wine landscapes, floodplains and many more. The aim of every nature park is to preserve the diversity of these cultural landscapes through near-natural use. In this way, they are a special living space for the residents and an invigorating recreational space for the visitors. In addition, nature parks offer exciting opportunities to experience and understand nature.

The legal objective of nature parks is the protection of a landscape in connection with its use. The aim is to protect particularly valuable, characteristic landscape areas from destruction and to develop them further. Awarding the status ‘nature park’ to a region is tied to the following challenges:

Protecting and further developing a landscape
Creating recreational opportunities
Providing ecological and cultural education
Promoting sustainable regional development by creating jobs and sideline opportunities in tourism and agriculture.

A nature park is not a national park

A nature park therefore does not have official conservation status, such as a national park, where the focus is on preserving nature in its original form. Nature parks aim to preserve diverse cultural landscapes for future generations – and to do so together and in partnership with the people who inhabit and manage the space. “Nature conservation on equal footing” is the motto!