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Updating the Forest Nature Conservation Concept in Baden-Württemberg

You can see the pitiful remains of water covered with green aquatic plants at the bottom of a largely dry forest lake. The dry areas of the lake floor are littered with dry leaves. In the background you can see deciduous trees with leaves that are partly very brown in color. FVA BW/Mahlau

Severe drought can lead to extensive or complete drying out of water bodies in the forest, with negative consequences for the affected ecosystems.

Initial Situation

In 2014, the General Concept for Forest Nature Conservation (GK WNS) came into force in Baden-Württemberg. It is the technical concept for the forest, which substantiates the federal nature conservation strategy.

The aim of the GK WNS is to link a large number of different nature conservation and legal framework conditions. This should contribute to the resolution of conflicting goals and facilitate the practical implementation of species and biotope protection.

The previously valid GK WNS contains ten goals that should be achieved by the year 2020 (see "Die Gesamtkonzeption Waldnaturschutz ForstBW – mit den Waldnaturschutzzielen 2020"). These goals were aimed at the state forest and required to be implemented in it. For private and corporate forests, the GK WNS is only of a recommendatory nature.

The degree of implementation and target achievement of the ten targets in the state forest was evaluated by ForstBW and FVA. You can read more here. The evaluation offers clues as to what worked and where we need to further develop the concept.

Lying deadwood in the forest FVA BW/Mahlau

Fig. 2: Lying deadwood in the forest.

Larva of the wood-decomposing beetle Pyrochroa coccinea  FVA BW/Mahlau

Fig. 3: Larva of the wood-decomposing beetle Pyrochroa coccinea.

Aim of the effort to update the Forest Nature Conservation Concept

The goals that have not yet been fully achieved are to be implemented further. To this end, the existing obstacles to implementation must be analysed and removed as far as possible.

A criticism of the existing GK WNS is that the underlying technical concepts, contrary to its objective, often exist separately from each other and are hardly intertwined or weighed against each other. The technical concepts are and were pursued with the goals and other existing forest nature conservation instruments (e.g. ‘Alt- und Totholzkonzept’ and Natura 2000 in the forest).

Topics that run through most of the goals and need more attention in the future include

  • communication (information and dialogue),
  • dealing with disruptions,
  • Forest and water and
  • habitat connectivity.

A central factor that must underlie all considerations of biotope and species protection is climate change. It causes dynamic changes in the local characteristics, which can be expressed, for example, in shifts in potential biotope and species occurrences. The models and measures of the new Forest Nature Conservation Concept ("Waldnaturschutzkonzeption", WNSK) must also be able to deal with changing environmental factors in a correspondingly dynamic manner.

In addition to climate change, the ownership of forest areas must also be more in focus in the future: In Baden-Württemberg, around a quarter of the forest areas are state-owned. The occurrence of the protected goods is not primarily influenced by the types of forest ownership. Comprehensive biodiversity protection should therefore also involve private and corporate forest owners. Their voluntary cooperation must be won through appropriate instruments for information and financial support as well as communication and cooperation on an equal footing with all relevant stakeholder groups. Appropriate instruments have been prepared as part of further development.

Schematic of the structure of the revised Forest Nature Conservation Concept: Modular construction of a framework concept, which encloses an abbreviated Concept for practical application and a more detailed module for further interest FVA BW

Schematic structure of the planned further developed forest nature protection concept.

A comprehensive Forest Nature Conservation Concept is intended to represent the target states to be pursued across all forest ownership types. Framed by this common strategic-political framework (Module I), ownership-specific sub-concepts were developed: Module II represents an abbreviated elaboration of the fields of action. It is intended for general information and practical application and will be available in printed form. Module III contains more detailed versions of the fields of action as well as additional information, thus allowing for a more in-depth study of any topic of the forest conservation concept. All three modules will be available online.

The state forestry administration is concentrating on making the topic attractive for forest owners through information, understandable formulations and processes, advice and support. The implementation obligation remains for the state forest – and therefore ForstBW. Here you can concentrate on implementing the measures as comprehensively, technically coherent and efficiently as possible. In all cases, the necessary resources must be made available for successful implementation.

As a result of the further development process, we have developed a concept for forest nature conservation at the landscape level, which views the forest in Baden-Württemberg as a whole and includes forest-related landscape elements in the planning.

However, regional aspects are also taken into account: a bird's-eye view should result in a big picture, instead of a patchwork quilt of incoherent measures. By prioritizing the measures in terms of space and time, the diverse forest nature conservation goals in the forest should be able to be implemented in the best possible way. Conflicts of interest between forest nature conservation goals and ecosystem services are to be resolved as comprehensively as possible. The aim is to ensure the “greatest possible overall benefit” of all ecosystem services, while the diverse approaches and interests of forest owners contribute to the creation and maintenance of multifaceted ecosystems. The targets must be regionally specific enough for those responsible locally to be able to derive concrete measures and criteria for monitoring effectiveness are also in place. The WNSK must take into account the different tasks of the State Forest Administration (Landesforstverwaltung - LFV) and ForstBW.

Amphibian spawn at the bottom of a forest pond. FVA BW/Mahlau

Amphibian spawn at the bottom of a forest pond.

Brown and white mushrooms on the forest floor surrounded by dead leaves. Another mushroom out of focus in the background. FVA BW/Mahlau

Lepiota mushroom in the forest.

Status Quo of the Project

In various workshops and specialist working groups, the perspectives of a wide range of actors related to the forest were obtained. A combination of these perspectives, technical expertise from administration and research as well as empirical knowledge from the last decade of forest nature conservation in Baden-Württemberg was brought together to develop the Forest Nature Conservation Concept for the state of Baden-Württemberg.

Work is currently underway to prepare for publication, finalize the editorial content of the various modules and prepare for implementation.

The further development of the new forest conservation concept was completed in 2024; publication and implementation are currently being prepared. The forest conservation concept is a joint product of ForstBW, the LFV, and the FVA. The Baden-Württemberg Rural Area Academy (Akademie Ländlicher Raum Baden-Württemberg, ALR) is supporting its implementation.

If you are interested in the Forest Nature Conservation Concept 2030 and its contents, please register for our digital kick-off symposium on May 15, 2025, 2:00-4:00 p.m.

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