Germany’s National Natural Landscapes today comprise 16 national parks, 18 biosphere reserves and 104 nature parks. Germany’s national parks are natural landscapes largely unaffected by human activity; their protected areas allow nature to be undisturbed to a particularly large extent for present and future generations, so that we humans are aware of the beauty and the value of life on our Earth and preserve the diversity of nature.
With the National Biodiversity Strategy, adopted by the Federal Cabinet in 2007, Germany is fulfilling a central requirement of the Convention on Biological Diversity. As a basis for assessing the management quality of national parks, quality criteria and standards, as well as an evaluation procedure, were developed as early as 2008, with significant support from the federal government.
Eight activity areas have been determined for all topics and tasks that are relevant to achieve them and the goals of the national parks. The eight areas of activity are further differentiated by 42 quality criteria and described in more detail with regard to the aspects relevant to the area of activity. For each quality criterion, a quality standard is defined that describes the respective ideal state, taking into account national and international requirements.