Wilderness Forests for Diversity

„Wilderness is an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammelled by man, where man himself is but a visitor who does not remain."
The Wilderness Act of 1964

The national strategy for biological diversity defines wilderness areas as sufficiently large, mostly unfragmented, economically unused areas that guarantee a sustainable cycle of natural processes without any human influence. It is the objective of the German Federal Government that nature can develop according to its own rules on a minimum of 2 percent of the country's territory in 2020. Key is the protection of the forests so that economic usage shall be banished in five percent of all forests until 2020. State owned forests are planned to pave the way with 10 percent of their area not used.

This is also reflected by the biodiversity strategy of North-Rhine-Westphalia where this approach is considered a significant opportunity to protect biodiversity. As more than ten percent of North-Rhine-Westphalia's forests are currently not used economically, these areas already contribute to the overall target.