Updating the Forest Nature Conservation Concept

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. — 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.

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

Aim of the effort to update the General Concept for Forest Nature Conservation

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

An overarching Forest Nature Conservation Concept should represent the target states that should be strived for across all types of forest ownership. Framed by this common strategic-political framework (Module I), partial concepts have been 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 further information; It therefore allows deeper familiarization with any topic of the Forest Nature 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, an Forest Nature Conservation Concept at landscape level is aimed for, which sees 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. This is intended to ensure the “greatest possible overall benefit” of all ecosystem services. 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 GK WNS 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.

Brown and white mushrooms on the forest floor surrounded by dead leaves. Another mushroom out of focus in the background. — *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 Nature Conservation Concept will be completed in 2024.

Further information

To the website of the MLR "Waldnaturschutzkonzeption des Landes Baden-Württemberg"
To the article Waldzielartenkonzept und Waldnaturschutz-Informationssystem: Instrumenten zur Artenförderung im Staatswald von Baden-Württemberg
ForstBW - Die Gesamtkonzeption Waldnaturschutz
To the brochure ForstBW PRAXIS "Die Gesamtkonzeption Waldnaturschutz ForstBW" (PDF 3,7 MB)
To the article Temperate Mountain Forest Biodiversity under Climate Change: Compensating Negative Effects by Increasing Structural Complexity

To the website