Norbert Panek

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Norbert Rudolf Panek , born on May 23, 1954 in Berlin , is a German forest conservationist and landscape planner with a focus on beech forests .

Professional background

Panek initially completed an apprenticeship as a landscape gardener in Berlin and studied landscape maintenance at the Technical University in Berlin-Dahlem from 1975 to 1978. After completing his studies, he took up a position as a consultant for horticulture and landscape management in the Hessian agricultural administration in Korbach ( Northern Hesse ). In 1999, Panek was appointed deputy head of the landscape management department at the Office for Regional Development, Landscape Management and Agriculture, which from 2001 became part of the state administration of the Waldeck-Frankenberg district. In 2006 Panek took over the management of the project office of the GrenzWelten national geopark founded by the district . Panek has been retired since early 2020 .

voluntary work

Inspired primarily by the writings of the environmental journalist Horst Stern , Panek became interested in nature conservation at an early stage . In the middle of the 1970s in Berlin (West) he was involved in a citizens' initiative against the construction of a coal-fired power plant in the Spandau city forest. During and after his studies, Panek worked in a project group on the draft of a first Berlin landscape plan for the Gatower Rieselfelder in the Spandau district (see publications). Moved to Korbach in the meantime, Panek set up a contact group for nature conservationists in Waldeck-Frankenberg in 1984. He supported the natural garden movement of that time with numerous publications of his own and, as part of his consultancy work in the competition Our village should become more beautiful, campaigned for the protection of the rural ruderal flora. In 1982, for the first time for a public institution in Hesse, he designed a natural green maintenance concept for the outdoor facilities of the Office for Agriculture in Korbach. In 1990 Panek finally founded the Pro National Park Kellerwald initiative in Korbach, from which the national park association of the same name, which has existed since 1992, emerged. Panek was the first chairman of this association from 1992 to 1998.

Journalistic activities

Panek had been active as a journalist since his studies and wrote for the Spandauer Volksblatt and the renowned Kosmos magazine (see publications). He was involved in various alternative newspaper projects and published his own nature conservation information sheet in 1985. As a co-author, he was involved in various book projects. In 2000, Panek, together with three other authors, published a first-time illustrated book about the Kellerwald (title Naturerbe Kellerwald - Symphony of a Landscape), which promoted the establishment of a national park. His important publications also include two other elaborately designed illustrated books, which were published in 2017 by Ambaum-Verlag (Title Verborgene Urwälder am Edersee) and Natur + Text-Verlag (Title Kellerwald-Edersee National Park - World Natural Heritage in Hesse). In 2006 Panek self-published a chronology of the history of the origins of the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park, founded in 2004 (title Urwald-Ängste).

He also designed and published a series of regional books and brochures (Geofuehrer) especially for the GrenzWelten Geopark.

National Park and World Heritage Initiative

Panek has been campaigning for the designation of a beech forest national park in Kellerwald in northern Hesse since 1986 and founded a citizens' initiative in 1990, from which the National Park Association was formed in 1992 and chaired it until 1998. In 1997, the first attempt at national park designation failed due to a regional referendum. Even a protest campaign with over 12,000 signatures voting for the national park could no longer avert the negative decision. After supraregional nature conservation organizations such as Greenpeace and the WWF also got involved in the national park discussion, the tide turned. On January 1, 2004, the National Park in the Kellerwald was finally officially established. Panek is considered to be one of the key pioneers of protective equipment.

In 2001 Panek founded the Buchenwald-Institut eV together with biologists, vegetation experts and ecologists from Northern Hesse, which set itself the goal of researching and protecting the beech forests on a national and international level. At the same time, Panek and his colleagues visited numerous beech forest areas throughout Europe, including the primeval forest areas Havesova and Stuzica in the Slovak Republic and the Rothwald in Lower Austria. Already at the end of the 1990s the idea ripened to nominate some selected beech forests in Central Europe (including the Kellerwald) as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In 2006, Panek was instrumental in the selection process for the five German beech forest areas as an expert on behalf of the Federal Environment Ministry, which were then recognized by UNESCO as a serial World Heritage site in association with Carpathian beech forests in 2011.

In 2011, Panek published a study for the environmental organization Greenpeace, which received much attention in specialist circles, in which he developed the protection concept for a nationwide network of beech forests. From 2011 to 2015, together with other renowned forest experts such as Lutz Fähser, Knut Sturm and Peter Wohlleben, he was a member of an advisory group that supported a nationwide Greenpeace campaign on the subject of beech forests. In 2019 he published a red list of the beech forests in Germany.

Geopark initiative

In 2001, after a visit to the Vulkaneifel Geopark, Panek developed the idea of ​​setting up a Geopark in the vicinity of the Korbach Column fossil site (Waldeck-Frankenberg district). The idea was taken up by the district administrator of the then district administration and led to the establishment of a working group that created a technical concept in 2003. In December 2005, the district council of the Waldeck-Frankenberg district decided to pursue the establishment of the Geopark and an application as a National Geopark. Panek was entrusted with the management of the Geopark project office. On September 5, 2006, the district committee approved the technical concept and an initial action plan. After an extensive implementation process with numerous regional conferences and citizens' assemblies, the final delimitation of the Geopark was determined. It includes ten sub-regions with a total area of ​​3,720 km². In July 2009, the application for the National Geopark seal of quality was initiated with the professional support of the Korbach geographer Marc Müllenhoff and the geologist Sven Bökenschmidt from Vöhl. On October 15, 2009, the Grenz Welten Geopark was finally certified as a National Geopark for a limited period of five years. At the end of January 2010, the official handover of the certification document took place in the presence of the then Minister of Science Kühne-Hörmann. Since then, the Geopark has been successfully re-evaluated twice under the direction of Panek.

Publications (selection)

Book publications:

  • A. Frede, A. Hoffmann, R. Kubosch & N. Panek: Naturerbe Kellerwald - Symphony of a Landscape (illustrated book), cognitio Verlag, Niedenstein 2000 (96 pages).
  • R. Kubosch & N. Panek: Hidden Urwälder am Edersee - A journey in pictures (illustrated book), Ambaum Verlag, Vöhl-Basdorf 2017 (152 pages).
  • N. Panek: Urwald-Ängste - The arduous way to the Kellerwald National Park, Self-published Korbach, 2006 (360 pages).
  • N. Panek: Beech forests on everyone's lips - recipes for everything to do with the red beech, Ambaum Verlag, Vöhl-Basdorf 2010 (70 pages).
  • N. Panek: The country needs wild forests - a plea for a new forest awareness, Ambaum Verlag, Vöhl-Basdorf 2013 (118 pages).
  • N. Panek: Germany, your beech forests. Data-fact-analyzes, Ambaum Verlag, Vöhl-Basdorf 2016 (208 pages).
  • N. Panek: Kellerwald-Edersee National Park - World Natural Heritage in Hesse, Natur + Text Verlag, Rangsdorf 2017 (168 pages).
  • N. Panek & C. Schwedhelm: Cycling through geological history - Between slate and sandstone, GEO-FÜHRER series, Ambaum Verlag, Vöhl-Basdorf 2018 (224 pages).
  • N.Panek & G. Sperber: Wilderness Red Deer Spruce Forest. Aldo Leopold and the German Problem, Ambaum Verlag, Vöhl-Basdorf 2019 (136 pages).
  • N. Panek: The history of our forests - A primeval forest hiking book, GEO-FÜHRER series, edited by the project office of the National Geopark GrenzWelten, Korbach 2019 (112 pages).
  • N. Panek: Wood factories in the crisis (brochure), Ambaum Verlag, Vöhl-Basdorf 2019 (28 pages).
  • N. Panek: Forests instead of forests - theses on the future of forests (brochure), self-published by Korbach, 2020 (16 pages).

Publications in professional journals / magazines:

  • H.-R., Dietrich, N. Panek and HH Thielen: Nature protection for the Rieselfelder Gatow, in: Das Gartenamt, Volume 31, No. 1, 1982, pp. 37-51.
  • N. Panek: Nature conservation on the siding, in: Spandauer Volksblatt, June 5, 1977.
  • N. Panek: Berlin - city guide for nature lovers, in: Kosmos picture of our world, Volume 75, No. 1, 1979, pp. 26-47.
  • N. Panek: Dorfflorakartierung - A contribution to the preservation of the village-typical ruderal vegetation in the context of village renewal, illustrated using the example of the village Vöhl, Waldeck-Frankenberg district, in: Natur und Landschaft, Volume 62, No. 1, 1987, pp. 10-13 .
  • N. Panek: Investigations on the ruderal equipment and the occurrence of some selected ruderal plants in the districts of the city of Korbach, in: Vogelkundliche Hefte Edertal, Volume 13, 1987, pp. 156-168.
  • N. Panek: A deciduous forest national park in Northern Hesse ?, in: Natur und Landschaft, Volume 64, No. 7/8, 1989, pp. 338–342.
  • N. Panek: Kellerwald National Park - Protection for Hessian deciduous forest ecosystems in the low mountain ranges, in: Nature conservation and landscape planning, Volume 24, No. 3, 1992, pp. 112–116.
  • N. Panek: Proposals for the planning and realization of a beech forest national park Kellerwald in Northern Hesse, in: Natur und Landschaft, Volume 71, No. 4, 1996, pp. 160–167.
  • N. Panek: Finally protect the beech forests !, in: National Park, Volume 108, 2000, pp. 44–47.
  • N. Panek: Red Beech Forests in Germany - Contribution to the Implementation of a Protection Strategy, in: Nature Conservation and Landscape Planning, Volume 40, No. 5, 2008, pp. 140–146.
  • N. Panek: Proposals for a transnational world natural heritage cluster of the beech forests of Europe, in: Nature conservation and landscape planning, Volume 43, No. 9, 2011, pp. 271–279.
  • N. Panek: Endangered beech forests - It clears, in: Political Ecology, Volume 132: Forest - Political leeway between tree and bark, 2013, pp. 96-101.
  • N. Panek & M. Kaiser: A new national park program for Germany, in: Nature conservation and landscape planning, Volume 47, No. 1, 2015, pp. 5–11.
  • N. Panek: Far from being close to nature. Germany's beech forests - a critical inventory, in: Der Kritische Agrarbericht, 2017, pp. 223–226.
  • N. Panek: Geotope protection and geoparks in Germany - A critical inventory, in: Nature protection and landscape planning, Volume 50, No. 6, 2018, pp. 182–191.
  • N. Panek: Extended World Natural Heritage Beech Forests of Europe - Nature Conservation in a New Dimension, in: NaturMagazin Berlin-Brandenburg, Volume 3, 2018, pp. 8–12.
  • N. Panek: Public forest in the age of harvesters - What numbers reveal and what politics keep silent, in: National Park, Volume 183, 2019, pp. 34–37.
  • N. Panek: Proposal for a new protection category Geopark in nature conservation law, in: Yearbook Nature Conservation in Hessen, Volume 18, 2019, pp. 47–51.
  • N. Panek: Red list of the beech forests in Germany. An evaluation of the data from the Alternative Forest Status Report, in: Nature Conservation and Landscape Planning, Volume 52, No. 5, 2020, pp. 236–241.

Assessment:

  • A. Hoffmann and N. Panek: Feasibility study for a UNESCO World Natural Heritage nomination for a selected German beech forest cluster - Subproject 1: Scientific part, on behalf of the Federal Office
  • for nature conservation, Bonn-Bad Godenberg 2006.
  • N. Panek: Differences between useless large protected areas versus semi-natural deciduous commercial forests - comparative evaluation of the forest management of the forest enterprise Ebrach with a national park Steigerwald in terms of natural protection, expert opinion on behalf of the Federal Nature Conservation in Bavaria eV, 2010 (38 pages).
  • N. Panek: Germany's international responsibility; Protecting beech forests in a network, report on behalf of Greenpeace eV, Hamburg 2011 (70 pages).
  • N. Panek: Suitability of public forests in Lower Saxony as building blocks for the nationwide protection of old beech forests, report on behalf of Greenpeace eV, Hamburg 2012 (34 pages).
  • N. Panek: On the question of the national park suitability of forest areas in Rhineland-Palatinate, report on behalf of Greenpeace eV, Hamburg 2012 (24 pages).
  • N. Panek: Suitability of public forests in Hesse for a network system of unused beech forests - ten percent natural forest development for biodiversity, climate and people, report on behalf of Greenpeace eV, Hamburg 2013 (34 pages).
  • N. Panek: The German forest as reflected in the Federal Forest Inventory (BWI3) - results, development trends, open questions from the perspective of nature conservation, study on behalf of Greenpeace eV, Hamburg 2016 (42 pages).
  • N. Panek: Hesse's forests in the focus of the third national forest inventory from a nature conservation perspective, study on behalf of the BUND-Landesverband Hessen eV, Frankfurt / M. 2018 (30 pages).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Norbert Panek (viSdP): GrenzWelten - Newsletter No. 2/2013 -. Project office for the National Geopark GrenzWelten, 2013, accessed on June 14, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Nature conservation associations in the district: Cooperation aimed, Waldeckische Allgemeine (HNA) of July 7, 1984.
  3. ↑ Natural gardens - showing alternatives, Waldeckische Landeszeitung (WLZ) of December 13, 1980.
  4. ↑ The natural garden: An idea and what's behind it, Der Hessische Obst- und Gartenbau-Heft 1 (January 1982).
  5. ↑ Species protection in village beautification - a contradiction ?, Waldeckische Landeszeitung (WLZ) of March 9, 1983.
  6. ↑ Weeds go away, Waldeckische Allgemeine (HNA) of September 24, 1986.
  7. ^ The first authority paves the way for the natural garden in Korbach, Waldeckische Allgemeine (HNA) of May 22, 1982.
  8. ↑ a b Initiative “Pro National Park” becomes active - opportunities not wasted, Waldeckische Landeszeitung from March 30, 1990.
  9. ^ First Buchenwald Institute founded, Waldeckische Landeszeitung (WLZ) of December 12, 2003.
  10. ↑ A. Hoffmann and N. Panek: Feasibility study for a UNESCO World Natural Heritage nomination of a selected German beech forest cluster - sub-project 1: Scientific part (unpublished), on behalf of the Federal Office f. Nature conservation, Bonn-Bad Godesberg 2006.
  11. ^ N. Panek: Proposal for a European Geopark in Waldeck-Frankenberg from December 12, 2001 (unpublished).
personal data
SURNAME Panek, Norbert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Panek, Norbert Rudolf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German forest conservationist and landscape planner
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin