Germany

Germany has a terrestrial area of close to 358 000 km² and a marine area close to 60 000 km² split between the Atlantic and the Baltic and is bordered by 9 other countries. The northern part of the country consists of lowlands with the southern part of the country consisting of the Alps, in-between are forested upland regions. The highest point is Zugspitze at 2 962m. Germany has a population of 83 million people and a population density of 234.7 people per km².

Protected areas

There are a total of   protected areas in Germany,   Natura 2000 sites -   Special Protection Areas (Birds Directive) and   Sites of Community Importance (Habitat Directive) - as well as   sites designated under national laws.

The average size of protected areas in Europe is lower compared to other regions of the world. This largely reflects the high degree of fragmentation of the land in Europe due to urbanisation, infrastructure and general intensification of land use. At a EU level 50% of protected areas have an area of less than 1 km². The 10 largest marine sites account for 68% of the marine area, while the 10 largest land sites account for 41% of the land area covered by protected areas

Natura 2000 sites in Germany cover   species and   habitats from the nature directives. The number of species and habitats protected in each site varies depending on the location of the site, the biodiversity in the region, the designation being used, and the features the site is being created to protect. For   sites there is only 1 feature being protected with   sites having more than 20 features.

Protected species

Species protected in Germany under EU law are protected under the Habitats Directive and under the Birds Directive. The Habitats Directive has a total of 2 500 species on its list, the Birds Directive has a total of 500 species of wild birds protected.

Conservation status: Habitats Directive

 % of species are considered to be Good

 % of species are considered to be Poor

 % of species are considered to be Bad

 % of species are considered to be Unknown

Conservation Status by Taxa

Protected species composition by Taxa

Protected habitats

Habitats protected in Germany under EU law are protected under the Habitats Directive. The Habitats Directive has a total of 233 habitats on its list.

  habitats protected under EU law in Germany.

Conservation status: Habitats Directive

 % of habitats are considered to be Good

 % of habitats are considered to be Poor

 % of habitats are considered to be Bad

 % of habitats are considered to be Unknown

Conservation Status by Group

Habitat composition by Group

Ecosystems

Policy

MAES in Germany:

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Green infrastructure in Germany:

Legislative competences are shared between the federal level (“Bund”) and the level of the 16 Länder in Germany. The 2006 reform of the Constitution transferred more policies to the federal level. Most environmental policies (waste disposal, air protection, water and nature protection) are “concurrent [shared] competences”, where the Länder have the right to adopt their own provisions. However, the general principles of nature conservation, the right to protection of species and the protection of the marine environment are exempted from this possibility of deviations in the area of nature conservation and landscape conservation.

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National Biodiversity strategy for Germany:

To report on progress to the EU 2020 biodiversity strategy, the European Commission extracted relevant information from the EU Member States’ 5^th national reports to the CBD. Of the 5 countries which had not finalized their national reports at the time of the synthesis (26^th of August 2015), Greece, Malta, Portugal and Lithuania provided information to be included in the synthesis.

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