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Maintenance and Development Plan Nuthe-Nieplitz (Prelimnary Study)
Only conservationists are familiar with the abbreviation "PEP" (Pflege- und Entwicklungsplan, German for maintenance and development plan). These plans have to be developed for areas that due to the law of nature conservation are natural or special cultivated landscapes which need to be protected. A maintenance and development plan can be highly varied and comprehensive if it is for great protection areas such as natural parks. A close collaboration of experts for botany, zoology, hydrology, agriculture and forestry, as well as for landscape aesthetics, tourism, law, data processing, cartography and depending on the investigation area further applications is required.
In the Federal State Brandenburg it turned out appropriate to prefix a preliminary study to the maintenance and development plan in big protection areas. LUP was leading the draft of the preliminary study for the natural park "Nuthe-Nieplitz", that was given to the client, the Environmental Agency of Brandenburg, on schedule on March 31st 2008.
Despite the shortness of working time there are high standards for the preliminary study:
- Collecting, organising, evaluating and editing all available data of the investigation area;
- Segmenting of the area in homogeneous landforms including description, characterisation and illustration;
- assessing the conservational status of the investigation area and its homogeneous landforms by using the existing data;
- Registration of the deficits, threats and conflicts;
- Deduction and statement of the need for action, which comprehends effectively a work outline for the final maintenance and development plan;
- Composition of numerous thematic maps.
The natural park "Nuthe-Nieplitz" nearby the cities Berlin and Potsdam represents a diverse nature in highly varied landscapes. "New wilderness" is developing on former military training areas. Flat lakes, swamps and lowlands are populated by rare animal species such as otter or crane as well as many resting migrant birds. In some parts of the investigation area glacial sand and rubble pile up to nearly low mountain ranges, where species that like heat and aridity can be found. In-between it is possible to experience a nearly undisturbed rural cultural landscape.
So far the natural park has been less common in the population of Berlin and Potsdam. Experiencing nature is not easy for the visitors because of missing trails, information signs and facilities. Excessive military utilization and brutal interferences into the ecosystem through the industrial agriculture during the GDR era caused damages and desolations of some zones. There is still a lot to be done for the PEP!
