Nature Park

Kapitelfoto NW Edenkoben_Blick_Neustadt_1_bearbeitet-1Partner farm in biosphere reserve

At the very beginning of its development, the Pfälzerwald Nature Park was founded in 1959. At that time, it was one of the first nature parks in Germany and today, with a size of 179,000 hectares, it is one of the largest nature parks in Germany. The primary goal of the nature park was to preserve and develop a large-scale, largely untouched and near-natural landscape as a place of recreation and encounter with nature for the population of the surrounding metropolitan areas. It was officially placed under protection in 1967 as a landscape protection area “Pfälzerwald Nature Park”; the protection was updated and extended with the state ordinance on the Pfälzerwald Nature Park of 1984, the aim of which is to protect the landscape area in order to preserve the diversity, uniqueness and beauty of the area. In 1992, the area was recognized as the 12th German biosphere reserve by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) because of its special exemplary and model character and was included in the worldwide network of biosphere reserves. This makes the Palatinate Forest an important piece in the mosaic for the global conservation of biological diversity and sustainable use of the earth’s natural resources. Since 1998, the area has been the German part of the cross-border German-French biosphere reserve Pfälzerwald-Nordvogesen. Since then, many projects carried out together across the border have aimed at creating a common identity and a shared responsibility for the natural and cultural heritage that exists and must be preserved.
Enjoying Palatinate Forest dishes, shopping ecologically, experiencing the largest contiguous forest area in Germany and learning more about the biosphere reserve, all this and much more is offered by the partner businesses in the Palatinate Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve. Since February 2004, businesses from several sectors in the Palatinate Forest have joined together to form a network.

Together with the sponsoring association of the biosphere reserve, they are taking the common path of developing the region in a sustainable manner. For this purpose, quality criteria and control systems have been developed individually to guarantee a certain environmental and product quality.

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