Legal protection of biotopes
Protected biotopes are habitats for special plant and animal species. These habitats deserve special protection because they are rare, have a high ecological value and/or are threatened with destruction.
There are laws and international agreements in place to protect these habitats. In Lower Saxony, the following biotope types are placed under special legal protection by § 30 of the Law on Nature Conservation and Landscape Management (BNatSchG):
- natural or semi-natural areas of flowing and stagnant inland waters, including their banks and the associated natural or semi-natural vegetation along the banks, as well as their natural or semi-natural siltation areas, oxbow lakes and regularly flooded areas;
- Moors, swamps, reed beds, large sedges, wet meadows rich in sedges and rushes, headwaters, inland salt marshes,
- open inland dunes, open natural block, rubble and scree slopes, clay and loess walls, dwarf shrub, broom and juniper heaths, bristle grass lawns, dry grasslands, heavy metal grasslands, forests and shrubs of dry warm locations,
- quarry, swamp and floodplain forests, ravine, boulder and slope debris forests, subalpine larch and larch pine forests,
- open rock formations, caves as well as near-natural tunnels, alpine lawns as well as snow valleys and crooked bushes,
- rocky and steep coasts, coastal dunes and beach walls, beach lakes, lagoon waters with siltation areas, salt marshes and tidal flats in the coastal area, seagrass meadows and other marine macrophyte populations, reefs, sublittoral sandbanks, silt bottoms with boring bottom megafauna as well as species-rich gravel, coarse sand and shilling grounds in the marine and coastal area,
- lean lowland hay meadows and mountain hay meadows listed in Annex I to Directive 92/43/EEC, orchards, stone bars and dry stone walls.
In addition, according to § 24 of the Lower Saxony Nature Conservation Act (NNatSchG), the following biotope types are placed under special legal protection:
- wet meadows rich in tall perennials and other species-rich wet and wet grassland,
- Meadows
- mesophilic grassland,
- orchards and pastures with an area of more than 2 500m2 of tall fruit trees with a trunk height of more than 1.60 m (orchards) and
- Sinkholes.
The protection of other biotopes may result from special legislation for the protection of certain areas.
Actions that may lead to the destruction or significant impairment of these habitats with their typical flora and fauna are prohibited. Exceptions may be permitted on a case-by-case basis if the impairments can be compensated. Damage and destruction of specially protected biotopes due to ignorance is also illegal. The polluter can be obliged to restore the original condition.
The legally protected biotopes are recorded by the municipality, joint municipality and city and registered in a register of protected parts of nature and landscape. The entry in this register shall be notified in writing to the owners and beneficiaries. The municipalities, joint municipalities and cities keep excerpts from this directory. Anyone can view this list and the excerpts in accordance with § 14 NAGBNatSchG.
The responsibility lies with the district and the district-free city.
No documents are required.
There are no fees.
There are no deadlines to be observed.
The recording of biotopes is carried out on the basis of the "Mapping Key for Habitat Types in Lower Saxony", which is published by the Lower Saxony State Agency for Water Management, Coastal Protection and Nature Conservation (NLWKN). On the website of the NLWKN you will find further information as well as photos of the protected and other biotope types. The protected biotopes are dealt with in detail in issue 3/2010 of the Nature Conservation Information Service.
Whether a plot of land or a certain habitat is subject to special legal biotope protection and what conditions may follow from this can be inquired at the competent authority.
For the conservation of these areas, land managers can apply for funding under nature conservation funding programmes.
The NLWKN advises through the Hanover/Hildesheim office on fundamental questions of biotope mapping and biotope protection.
Text reviewed by the Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection
The text was automatically translated based on the German content.
