EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - UNESCO World Heritage

NOMINATION DOSSIER ANNEX 5.1
"ANCIENT BEECH FORESTS OF GERMANY"
as MoU). He reiterated the willingness of his ministry to support the addition of a cluster of
selected German sites of beech forests to the already inscribed Primeval Beech Forests of
the Carpathians. All three countries affirmed their determination to continue cooperating
closely under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention for the protection of their outstanding
beech forests and to create the prerequisites for signing the MoU on future cooperation in
this area as swiftly as possible.
The German delegation presented its draft nomination dossier for Germany's beech forests
as an extension to the World Heritage Property Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians,
including the envisaged management system. The multi-tiered system includes the following
levels: management plan for the individual German component parts, coordinated
management of all German component parts and a integrated management system as
general (trilateral) management with harmonised goals, principles, measures, management
structures and, in particular, a Joint Management Committee to ensure a coordinated
management of a trilateral property. The integrated management system (IMS) was already
intensively discussed at the third trilateral meeting (Rakhiv, Ukraine, 8 – 11 May 2009). The
Slovak delegation had reviewed the presentation of management in chapter 5 of the
nomination dossier and the IMS, which included all changes discussed at the trilateral
meeting in Rakhiv in May 2009, and came to the conclusion that everything was well
elaborated. The Ukrainian delegation did not see any need for additional suggestions on
management either.
Both delegations considered the draft of the German proposal for extension to be of high
quality. However, they both stressed the importance of formulating a convincing key
statement to justify the nomination. The Slovak and Ukrainian delegations suggested also
pointing out the ecosystem services of beech forests in the German dossier for the extension
nomination (in particular with regard to the special ability to revitalise soil and the existing
beech stand's capacity to store CO2).
Furthermore, the title for the German extension nomination was discussed in connection with
the title for the envisaged joint Slovak-Ukrainian-German World Heritage Property. Having
considered various options, the delegates agreed on the following title:
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