On the occasion of the contract signing (see page 1), DBU aktuell spoke with Prof. Dr. Werner Wahmhoff, Assistant General Secretary of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) and Technical Director and Procurator of the DBU Naturerbe GmbH.
Which nature conservation strategies do you pursue?
Wahmhoff: Basically, open habitats with rare species are preserved through care programs on our land areas, near-natural forests are developed into new wilderness without human intervention, species-poor forest areas are developed into near-natural forests, and wetland biotopes are ecologically upgraded and preserved. As soon as a wooded area reaches a certain closeness to a natural condition, we give nature free rein. Up to that point, however, there will be some logging, in order to renaturalize homogenous industrial forests. So in this way we follow a double nature preservation strategy: with forests our long-term goal is to give nature free rein. On open land it is completely different: we want to care for rare habitats, in order to preserve or improve their condition.
