BERLIN, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The German government will likely fail to meet its target of securing five percent of Germany's forest area for natural development by 2020, the Federal Environment Ministry noted in its answer to an enquiry from the Green Party on Tuesday.
According to the government, 2.8 percent of the country's forest area is natural forest, which corresponds to about 3,240 square kilometers.
For the post-2020 period, the government predicted that around four percent of forests would be "secured for natural forest development".
"Although the enormous importance of forests for biodiversity and climate protection is well known, forests today face major challenges," Steffi Lemke, spokesperson for nature conservation policy for the Green Party, told Xinhua on Tuesday.
Germany therefore "needs more space where nature can still be nature," including extensive wilderness areas and forests that are "left to their own devices without management," added Lemke.
In 2007, the federal government adopted the National Strategy on Biological Diversity. One of the goals was that the proportion of Germany's natural forests should reach five percent by 2020.
Forests and forestry make an important contribution to climate protection by storing carbon in forests and wood products.
A Forest Climate Fund had been set up to "protect and preserve the carbon dioxide reduction potential from forests and woods as well as the adaptation of forests to climate change," the Ministry stated in the response. Forests in Germany "are diverse habitats and huge carbon reservoirs that must be used sustainably," stressed Lemke.
