Naturpark Lüneburger Heide 1.71

Lüneburg Heath Nature Park is a nature park, a form of protected environment, located in the Lüneburg Heath in northern Germany.It has an area of 1077.9km². The centre of the nature park is the Lüneburg Heath Nature Reserve with an area of 23440ha.GeographyThe nature park belongs to the former province of Lüneburg and, after its expansion in 2007, extends into the districts of Harburg, Lüneburg and Heidekreis. The Lüneburg Heath Nature Park is bordered in the north by Buchholz, in the east by Lüneburg, in the south by Soltau and in the west by Neuenkirchen. It lies roughly 40km south of Hamburg, 70 km east of Bremen and 90 km north of Hanover. It was established as early as 1922, initially with 21000ha of nature reserve. In 1993 this area was increased to 23440ha. By the beginning of 2007 the area of the nature reserve almost coincided with the area of the nature park. On 14 February 2007 the park was expanded to 107792ha. The areas added included various protected areas .Legal statusThe park is one of 98 nature parks in Germany. They were established under section 22, paragraph 4 of the Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG). They comprise about 25% of the total land area of Germany and are linked by the Verband Deutscher Naturparke (Association of German Nature Parks).