Route of the European Green BeltArt on the Green Belt, in the area that divided the formerEast andWest Germany. The art installation "Meeting" (German:Begegnung) was created in 2010 and was placed next to the bike pathView to the town ofRerik on theWustrow Peninsula, on the German Baltic Sea coast. The peninsula was mined during Nazi times and was a recreation area during GDR times. Many hotels were built by theFDGB holiday serviceŠumava National Park in the Czech Republic, on the border with Germany and theBavarian Forest National Park. Monument to the Iron Curtain not far from the border crossingThayatal National Park in Austria, on the border with the Czech Republic
The European Green Belt as an area follows the route of the former Iron Curtain and connectsnational parks,nature parks,biosphere reserves and transboundary protected areas as well as non-protected valuable habitats along or across the (former)borders.[1]
In 1970, satellite pictures showed a dark green belt ofold-growth forest on the Finnish-Russian border.[2] In the early 1980s, biologists discovered that the inner German border zone betweenBavaria in the west andThuringia in the east was a refuge for several rare bird species which had disappeared from the intensely used areas covering most ofCentral Europe.[3] The reasoning behind this observation was that negativehuman impact on the environment is smaller in such border zones which are commonly closed to public access and thuswildlife is minimally impacted by human activities.
After the end of theCold War in 1991, thestrict border regimes were abandoned and the border zones gradually opened, starting with theGerman reunification in 1990 and continuing with the step-by-step integration of new member states into theSchengen Treaty as part of the enlargement process of theEuropean Union. At the same time, large military facilities such as training grounds and military research establishments in or close to the border zones were closed down. For most cases, it was unclear whom these lands belonged to and thus what the fate of the valuable landscapes would be. Against this background, the conservation initiative Green Belt formed to conserve the natural assets along the former Iron Curtain.
The route of the Green Belt follows the course of the borders which during the second half of the 20th century divided theeastern European communist countries and the western capitalist countries. It is divided into four regional sections:
The historical starting point of the initiative was the Green Belt Resolution of Hof (Germany) in December 1989,[4] one month after the fall of theBerlin Wall. This document formulated and signed by more than 300 environmentalists from theGerman Democratic Republic and theFederal Republic of Germany initiated the first conservation projects targeting the inner German border. After several achievements, the idea was taken to the European level. After a first conference on the European Green Belt in 2003, it was decided to establish a working group with the World Conservation Union (IUCN) as overall coordinator for its implementation; IUCN together with the Ferto-Hanság National Park in Hungary organized the first meeting of the working group, which took place 9–12 September 2004.[5] In the following years, the working group together with stakeholders of the Green Belt elaborated a Programme of Work and proposed representatives in each country along the Green Belt to be officially appointed as National Green Belt Focal Points by their respective Ministries of Environment. AMemorandum of Understanding to jointly protect the Green Belt inFennoscandia was signed by the Environmental Ministers ofRussia,Finland andNorway in 2010. In November 2010, the Binding Award for outstanding contributions to nature conservation was awarded to five individuals for their continuous engagement in protecting the Green Belt.[6]
For several years there have been considerations to nominate the European Green Belt as aUNESCOWorld Heritage Site.[7]
The initiative's network consists of official representatives for the three regions named above (Regional Coordinators) and for each country (National Focal Points) appointed during the first European Green Belt meeting in 2003:[1]
Fennoscandian Green Belt: Association of Reserves and National Parks of Russian North-West (Baltic Fund for Nature)
Balkan or South Eastern European Green Belt:EuroNatur
The implementation of the Green Belt vision in the regions is carried out by several hundredstakeholders from nature conservation and sustainable development[8] who contribute either on a project or voluntary basis.
Observations by biologists revealed that the military practice along the borderline led to wildlife conservation in numerous ways:[9]
A ban on pesticide spraying has preserved many rare insects.
Keeping the vegetation cut so border guards can see across easily stopped the area from becoming continuous forest and thus preserved wildlife needing open land.
One peculiar occurrence noticed was that in a forested part of this belt on the frontier betweenBavaria andBohemia, 18 years after the border barrier was removed, forestdeer still refused to cross the frontier: comparehefting of livestock.
Oldlandmine explosion craters have become wildlife ponds.
Where theRiver Drava is the frontier betweenHungary andCroatia, mutual mistrust prevented river development works, so the river and its banks are still natural, including the river creating sand cliffs wheresand martins nest. The Drava has cut offmeanders, leaving many bits of each nation's territory on the wrong side of the river; these areas are not farmed and have become wildlife areas.
Along the coast of theMecklenburg area, restricted access, to stop people from crossing over by boat or swimming, helped to preserve coastal wildlife.
It has been proposed to develop not only the natural but also the cultural heritage of theSoviet period: following the idea to link the numerous historical initiatives, installations, projects and relics in the Green Belt with the natural heritage,[10] in order to turn the European Green Belt into living historicalmonument of theCold War during the 20th century.[8] In the context of the European Green Belt, cultural heritage has been assessed and/ or developed in several places already:
The permanent exhibition at theBorderland Museum Eichsfeld in Central Germany provides information about the European Green Belt. A hiking trail leads along the formerIron Curtain, where the visitors can take a look at preserved parts of the original border facilities.
On mountBrocken, Germany, the former border patrol path has been turned into a hiking route called the "Harz border path"[11]
In the Slovenian Nature ParkGoričko, border stones with information plates have been set up which inform visitors, about the history of the Iron Curtain and the natural values in place due to this history
Military heritage along the Latvian Green Belt has been assessed and compiled in a data base and map for visitors, including almost 100 stories of contemporary witnesses[12]
Iron Curtain Trail, a project to complete a long-distance cycling route in the EGB corridor.
Korean DMZ Nature Reserve; the DMZ between the two Koreas has created aninvoluntary park, and since 1966 there have been proposals to turn it into a proper nature reserve
^abRiecken, U., K. Ullrich, A. Lang (2007): A vision for the Green Belt in Europe, in: Terry, A., K. Ullrich and U. Riecken (Eds.): The Green Belt of Europe. From Vision to Reality, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK,ISBN2-8317-0945-8
^Haapala, H., Riitta, H., Keinonen, E., Lindholm, T. and Telkänranta, H. 2003. Finnish-Russian nature conservation cooperation. Finnish Ministry of the Environment and Finnish Environment Institute
^Beck, P. and Frobel, K. 1981. Letzter Zufluchtsort: Der "Todesstreifen"? in: Vogelschutz: Magazin für Arten- und Biotopschutz (2):24 (English: Last refuge: Border strip?).
^Riecken, U. & Ullrich, K. (2010): Implementation of the Green Belt – from paper to practice. 20 years of experience in Germany, in: Gulbinskas, S., Gasiūnaitė, Z., Blažauskas, N. and Sterr, H. (Eds.): 2nd Baltic Green Belt Forum – Towards sustainable development of the Baltic Sea coast, 304 pp., Klaipėda University Publishing, 2010
^Vogtmann (2007): Preface, in: Terry, A., K. Ullrich and U. Riecken (Eds.): The Green Belt of Europe. From Vision to Reality, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK,ISBN2-8317-0945-8
^Press release "Binding Award: under the sign of the Green Belt Europe", Euronatur, 20 November 2010[1]Archived 2 December 2013 at theWayback Machine
^Gaudry, K.H., Diehl, K., Oelke, M., Finke, G. and Konold, W. (2014): Feasibility Study World Heritage Green Belt – Final Report[2]
^abFrobel, K. (2009): The Green Belt – lifeline in no man’s land, in: Wrbka et al. (Eds.): The European Green Belt. Borders.Wilderness.Future., Publisher Bibliothek der Provinz,ISBN978-3-85474-209-8
^Jeschke, H.-P. (2009): The Green Belt as a natural and cultural heritage, in: Wrbka et al. (Eds.): The European Green Belt. Borders.Wilderness.Future., Publisher Bibliothek der Provinz,ISBN978-3-85474-209-8
