Preparation of the National Park Plan - Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald

4 NATIONAL PARK PLAN 2010
Introduction
Transformed by a competitor – a beech seedling on rotten wood.
(Photo: Karl Friedrich Sinner)
The purpose of national parks across the world is the
preservation of unspoilt landscapes as national natural heritage
for future generations. Nature in national parks should be
allowed to develop according to its own laws and without
human interference. National parks offer visitors the
opportunity to experience nature (wilderness) largely
uninfluenced by man and to get to know nature and how it
works.
National parks originated in North America, where the
Yellowstone National Park was founded in 1872. Nearly 100
years later in 1970, the Bavarian Forest National Park became
the first national park to be founded in Germany. Since then,
the number of national parks in Germany has risen to 14.
A national park does not exist in isolation, but is an integral
part of the region where it is located. There are numerous
ecological and socio-economic interactions between the
protected area and its surroundings. Within the statutory
objectives of national parks there are competing aims. One of
the functions of a national park plan is to set out priorities in
the management objectives of the national park and to lay down
medium term measures as a basis for an annual action plan. In
this way, the gradual development of a landscape hitherto used
by man into a natural landscape can be followed in a targeted
way. National park plans are essential particularly in Central
Europe, where because of the centuries-long human use, the
current population density and the multiplicity of interests and
land usage requirements, make them the only way to ensure the
development and continued existence of internationally
recognised national parks.
The current National Park Plan was prepared and compiled
on the basis of the Bavarian Forest National Park ordinance of
22 nd July 1997 (NP-VO), amended on 17 th September 2007, by
the National Park Administration in conjunction with the Local
Government National Park Committee.
After review by the advisory board, the National Park Plan
was approved by the Bavarian State Ministry for Environment
and Health and came into force on the 22 nd December 2011.
The approval was effected in agreement with the State
Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Forestry as well as
Economy, Transport and Technology.