Tree-top trail in the steigerwald leaves wishes unfulfilled

Imagine a multi-million euro treetop path being built in ebrach and no one going there. It probably won't be quite that bad, but it can't be ruled out that a viewing platform that lacks a serious background such as a national park or a world natural heritage title will have nowhere near the desired success with tourists as a draught horse that can grow with such pounds.

A combination of tree trail and nature reserve would also be very welcome to the experts of the adventure academy kotzting. If they start building in september, it will be because they hope to recover their investment of four million euros. After all, the first year is expected to generate 200.000 visitors from.
Max-dieter schneider (SPD), the mayor of ebrach, also wanted to do a nail with his head. From the difficult negotiations with the developer he knows that the tree trail will only work in the long run if it succeeds in directing rough streams of tourists into the heart of the steigerwald.

In order to achieve this goal, schneider is not discouraged by the reserved attitude of the state government towards a national park in the steigerwald. His motivation: schneider backed his plans with the people of upper franconia. After all, the district council of bamberg and the municipality of ebrach have spoken out in favor of the designation of protected forest areas in upper franconia with over 90 percent of the votes in favor.
In order to emphasize this clear vote in a place where it has hardly been acknowledged so far, schneider raised his demands shoulder to shoulder with the CSU district administrator gunther denzler (CSU) and major nature conservation groups in the council cellar on marienplatz in munich.

Unanswered questions were also raised: if the people of upper franconia are in favor of more nature conservation, why does the state government so persistently ignore this wish?? And why does it even take the risk of turning a treetop trail without the appropriate natural features into a million-dollar grave??
Schneider has a persistent supporter in the bamberg district administrator gunther denzler. Denzler was the first local politician in the region to dream of a national park in the steigerwald in 2007. Denzler, too, will not be dissuaded from the idea that the steigerwald could become a world natural heritage site – like the wilhelmshohe mountain park in kassel a few days ago. The train has not yet left the station, as was heard in munich, as long as a second extension of the beech forest world heritage sites is being considered on a european level. Countries like france and italy with the gargano mountains have already thrown their hats into the ring. What are they waiting for in the steigerwald?

Unesco wants real protection
it is clear: only with a treetop path, under which the quite normal turbo forestry with coarse gear and nature protection goals based on promises runs off, a world heritage application makes no sense. Unesco will not be taken in by a cheating package. That's why the upper franconians around denzler and schneider want to go their own way: they are calling for the designation of 2,000 hectares of unused forest land exclusively in the upper franconian part of the steigerwald. There such an area would be presentable on the 4800 hectare flat of the state forestry enterprise – without taking up private property. And even the communities of lower franconia, which have spoken out against a national park, were not touched.
There is no lack of arguments for a solomonic solution to the steigerwald problem: all of the relevant nature conservation associations in bavaria, the bund naturschutz (BN), the landesbund fur vogelschutz (LBV), but also the world wide fund for nature (WWF), agree that a large-scale protected area in the steigerwald would be a blessing, not only for species diversity and regional development.

From her point of view, bavaria's blockade attitude in forest protection damages germany's credibility as a rich industrial country that is committed to worldwide nature conservation: "from an international point of view, this restraint is fatal. We can hardly ask other countries to protect their primeval forests if we are not prepared to protect our natural resources at home", helmut beran from the LBV states.
What is particularly disappointing for the bavarian nature conservationists is that while other federal states, such as rhineland-palatinate (where a national park competition is currently underway), are on the verge of implementing the biodiversity conservation strategy long approved by the federal government, it is rich bavaria that is putting the brakes on: here, of 2.5 million hectares of forest, only 27,000 are protected, with the bavarian forest national park accounting for the lesser share. "This corresponds to just three and a half percent of the state forest area – a "fig leaf", says ralf straubberger of the nature conservation union.