In the dispute over the deletion of protected areas in the Bavarian Forest National Park, Environment Minister Thorsten Glauber (Free Voters) has instructed the head of the protected area, Ursula Schuster, to name compensation for the two affected areas and to transfer them to the natural zone. This is intended to settle the dispute. “The Bavarian Forest National Park is the oldest German national park and a flagship of nature conservation in Germany,” said Glauber on Tuesday.
“The new compensation areas are intended to enhance the natural zone. I am sure that we will find a good solution together with those involved on site. For me, this is an important signal for nature conservation, for a national park that continues to be strong as a driver of tourism and for solidarity with the people in the region.”
Glauber is reacting to the announcement by the head of the national park that, in view of the impending bark beetle catastrophe in the Bavarian Forest, two small areas of six and eleven hectares would be removed from the natural zone of the protected area in order to enable the pest to be combated there. At the same time, Schuster emphasized that this approach was not necessary for forest protection reasons, because the previous anti-bark beetle measures on the outskirts of the national park were completely sufficient to protect the forests outside. The offer is intended to appease the critical attitude of some forest owners against the national park.
The natural zone of the national park was previously taboo for bark beetle control measures and all other human interventions. True to the national park’s principle of “letting nature be nature”, the forests and wildlife in the natural zone are left to their own devices. If the removal of the two areas without compensation had become a reality elsewhere, it would have been the first case of this kind in the almost 54-year history of the national park. That’s why Schuster’s plans were met with complete incomprehension and massive protests in the nature conservation scene. The chairman of the State Association for Bird and Nature Conservation, Norbert Schäffer, spoke of a breach of taboo and called on Schuster to withdraw the plans.
The LBV also welcomed Glauber’s announcement. In addition, however, Schäffer demanded a guarantee from the state government that the natural zone would be inviolable from now on – both in its scope and in its layout. “A case like this must never happen again. Because it only creates the desires of national park critics,” said Schäffer. “Especially since the head of the national park stated from the beginning that her plans against the bark beetle calamities outside the protected area could not have achieved anything.”