Germany submits nomination for UNESCO World Heritage List
Today Germany will submit the nomination of the outstanding German beech forests for inclusion into the UNESCO World Heritage List. For this ambitious endeavour a comprehensive nomination dossier was elaborated by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and the Länder Brandenburg, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Thuringia. Expert support came from Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN). The nomination will be submitted to UNESCO in Paris this afternoon. Germany's "old beech forests" are to supplement the existing world heritage site "Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathian in Slovakia and Ukraine". A decision from UNESCO is expected for the summer of 2011.
The Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage puts outstanding, unique natural and cultural heritage under global protection. UNESCO applies strict criteria. The nomination process is particularly demanding and requires highly professional preparation. The joint nomination dossier comprises an extensive description of the sites concerned and documents their globally unique character. The dossier also covers measured geared towards safeguarding the site nominated in the long term.
Selected areas in five protected areas in Germany have been proposed for nomination:
- Jasmund National Park (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)
- Serrahn in the Müritz National Park (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)
- Grumsin in the Schorfheide-Chorin UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (Brandenburg)
- Hainich National Park (Thuringia)
- Kellerwald-Edersee National Park (Hesse).
They represent valuable relics of Germany's large-scale semi-natural beech forests and thus supplement in an ideal manner the UNESCO world heritage site Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathian listed in 2007.
European beech forests constitute a unique natural heritage: Mighty silver grey tree trunks carry a canopy which has unique aesthetics in the different seasons. The beech forests are a purely European phenomenon. Germany is at the centre of their range of distribution. Today, Europe's natural beech forests have been reduced to few areas.
The status of a world heritage site would be a special honour and put these beech forests into the same category as the Grand Canyon in the US, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia - or the Wadden Sea, so far Germany's only large-scale world heritage site which was awarded the status in 2009.
In March 2008 a public awareness campaign was started which focuses on the entire UNESCO nomination process. This is to inform the population about decisive steps in the on-going process and to thus closely integrate the general public in the regions concerned into this process.