Elbe River Landscape Biosphere Reserve

Location of the Elbe River Landscape Biosphere Reserve

The Elbe River Landscape Biosphere Reserve was recognized by UNESCO as a biosphere reserve in 1997 . It consists of the four reserves :

• Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve (Saxony-Anhalt) (126,000 ha)
• Elbe-Brandenburg river landscape biosphere reserve (53,300 ha)
• Elbe-Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania River Landscape Biosphere Reserve (42,600 ha)
• Lower Saxony Elbe Valley Biosphere Reserve (56,760 ha).

The Elbe River Landscape Biosphere Reserve covers 278,660 hectares and includes areas that were already under protection before 1997. The Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm, a cultural landscape in Saxony-Anhalt that is important throughout Europe, is also part of this biosphere reserve.

The origins go back to 1979, when the "Steckby-Lödderitzer Forest" biosphere reserve was designated by UNESCO. Today the Steckby-Lödderitzer Forest is part of the Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve , includes the Elbe meadows as a unique meadow landscape biotope and offers protection to many endangered animals and plants, especially the Elbe beaver .

The biosphere reserve is located across the five federal states:

• Saxony-Anhalt
• Brandenburg
• Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
• Lower Saxony
• Schleswig-Holstein

Web links

• UNESCO biosphere reserve Elbe river landscape

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Beate Schümann: Everything in flux. Discovery of slowness in the UNESCO biosphere reserve Elbe river landscape. In: Neues Deutschland, 13./14. October 2018, p. 31