Lüneburg Heath Nature Park (German: Naturpark Lüneburger Heide) is a nature park, a form of protected environment, located in the Lüneburg Heath in northern Germany. It has an area of 1077.9 km². The centre of the nature park is the Lüneburg Heath Nature Reserve with an area of 23440 ha.

Geography

The nature park belongs to the former province (Regierungsbezirk) 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 40 km south of Hamburg, 70 km east of Bremen and 90 km north of Hanover. It was established as early as 1922, initially with 21000 ha of nature reserve. In 1993 this area was increased to 23440 ha. 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 107792 ha. The areas added included various protected areas (Landschaftsschutzgebiete).

Legal status

The 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). Note that this is a separate category from the 14 Nationalparke (national parks) of Germany, under paragraph 24 of the Federal Nature Conservation Act. See List of national parks of Germany.

Nature reserves

There are some 20 nature reserves (Naturschutzgebiete or NSGs) in the park. NSGs with an area of more than 100 hectares are:

Protected areas

There are more than 50 protected landscapes (Landschaftsschutzgebiete or LSGs) in the park. LSGs with an area of more than 500 hectares are:

Natural monuments