A Naturschutzgebiet is a category of protected area

Protected area

Protected areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognised natural, ecological and/or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the enabling laws of each country or the regulations of the international...

 within German Federal Conservation Law (the Bundesnaturschutzgesetz or BNatSchG).

Points of law

The use of the term Naturschutzgebiet or terms that could be confused with it, for anything other than the legally protected areas is forbidden under this law.

Signage

Because legal restrictions are placed on activity within German nature reserves they have to be signed on the ground. Only by this means can e.g. walkers know that they are entering a nature reserve and may not e.g. leave the tracks and paths. For historical reasons there is no standard sign used across Germany.

Nature reserves in the "old states" of the Federal Republic of Germany are marked by green signs with the silhouette of a sea eagle

Sea Eagle

Sea eagle mainly refers to Sea eagle, birds of prey of the genus Haliaeetus.It may also refer to:-Aerospace:* Sea Eagle , British, anti-ship missile* Sea Eagle * Supermarine Sea Eagle, 1920s British passenger flying boat-Sports:...

. In the new federal states of the former East Germany they are marked with a pentagonal yellow sign bearing an image of a Long-eared Owl

Long-eared Owl

The Long-eared Owl - Asio otus is a species of owl which breeds in Europe, Asia, and North America. This species is a part of the larger grouping of owls known as typical owls, family Strigidae, which contains most species of owl...

. The reunification of Germany the 36th Environmental Minister's Conference in 1991 recommended the use of the owl symbol in future in the whole of Germany to designate nature reserves. This recommendation was not unversally adopted by the states, in whom the jurisdiction for conservation policy was vested. For that reason there are de facto three different signs being used alongside one another in Germany today.

• Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Saxony use the owl on a pentagon, Saxony-Anhalt employing a white background instead of the usual yellow.
• Berlin, Lower Saxony and Bremen use the owl in a green triangle.
• Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinat, the Saarland, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria use the sea eagle in a green triangle.

Nature reserves in Germany

At the end of 2008 there were 8,413 nature reserves in Germany with a total area of 1,271,582 hectares. That corresponds to 3.6 % of the area of Germany. The lowest percentage areas are in the states of Hesse (1.8 %) and Rhineland-Palatinate (1.9 %). The percentage coverage in the "old" and "new" states is identical. About 60 % of all nature reserves are smaller than 50 hectares in area. In such small areas experts say that the achievement of conservation goals is at risk, because negative influences from the surrounding area cannot be sufficiently mitigated. The number and size of nature reserves has increased considerably in recent decades. In 1995 there were only 5,314 Naturschutzgebiete in Germany with an area of 6,845 km². Even the current coverage is seen by experts as too low to preserve the variety of species in Germany.

The following lists detail the nature reserves by state:

• Baden-Württemberg
• Bavaria
• Berlin
• Brandenburg
• Bremen
• Hamburg
• Hesse
• Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
• Lower Saxony
• North Rhine-Westphalia
• Rhineland-Palatinate
• Saarland
• Saxony
• Saxony-Anhalt
• Schleswig-Holstein
• Thuringia