EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - UNESCO World Heritage

NOMINATION DOSSIER ANNEX 5.5
"ANCIENT BEECH FORESTS OF GERMANY"
Ministry for the
Environment, Energy, Agriculture,
and Consumer Protection
Hesse
Report to the Cabinet
Wiesbaden, 4 September 2009
on the issue of the nomination of German beech forests for UNESCO Natural World Heritage
status
The Cabinet should resolve:
The report presented by the Ministry for the Environment, Energy, Agriculture and Consumer
Protection on the issue of the nomination of German beech forests for UNESCO World Nature
Heritage status is acknowledged. The Cabinet seconds the nomination campaign conducted
by the Federal Government and the federal states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania,
Thuringia, and Hesse, to have German beech forests designated as UNESCO Nature
World Heritage sites, and orders the Ministry for the Environment, Energy, Agriculture and
Consumer Protection to continue to pursue the undertaking.
Statement of Grounds:
The UNESCO World Heritage Convention is deemed among the most important agreements under
international law in the field of monument and nature conservation.
At present, the World Heritage List contains 689 cultural heritage sites and 176 natural heritage sites
as well as 25 mixed sites (meeting both cultural and natural criteria). Germany is represented in the
World Heritage List with 33 sites: 31 cultural heritage sites and 2 natural heritage sites ("Grube Messel"
and “Wattenmeer”, which was newly inscribed this year). Since there is an underrepresentation of
natural heritage sites in the UNESCO World Heritage List, the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation
(BfN: Bundesamt für Naturschutz) conducted a study in 2004 to identify potential UNESCO World
Heritage sites in Germany. In light of the global responsibility incumbent on Germany to preserve
these ecosystems, the "beech forests", as part of an international serial nomination, were judged favourably.
The BfN feasibility study that followed gave proof that a nomination appears to have prospect
of succeeding.
Together with the three federal states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, and Thuringia,
Hesse is seeking the designation of five German beech forest areas as UNESCO Natural World Heritage.
These forests are the most valuable subterritories of the national parks Hainich in Thuringia,
Jasmund and Müritz in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Kellerwald-Edersee in Hesse and Grumsin in
the Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve.
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