The Siegen-Wittgenstein county council is due to decide on 13 November 2026 on the next step towards creating a national park on the Rothaar ridge Ahead of the special meeting, the German Sawmill and Timber Industry Association has come out against the proposal. It is calling for the application to be rejected. No firm outcome of the meeting is yet available.
The association says its opposition is based on the importance of forest management to the region. In the face of drought, pest infestations and extreme weather, active restructuring of forests is necessary, it says. Nature conservation and the sustainable use of timber are not mutually exclusive. The association also points out that parts of the area are already protected.
By contrast, the county administration is proposing that the council endorse the state’s plans North Rhine-Westphalia in principle, but subject to conditions. Under the proposal dated 30 October, important transport projects should not be affected. Municipalities should also be given reliable rights to participate, and owners of neighbouring land should not be disadvantaged. The proposal says commitments made by the state should be set out in a declaration of intent.
The interests of the affected municipalities also differ. The council of Bad Laasphe called on 15 October for the decision to be postponed until legally binding planning approval decisions had been issued for several road projects. According to the county administration, the town council of Bad Berleburg opposed a national park within the proposed boundaries. The administration intends to address these concerns through commitments from the state, rather than postponing the decision.
Approval by the county council would not in itself establish the national park. According to the county administration, it would instead signal to the state that it should initiate a formal process. Responsibility for this lies with North Rhine-Westphalia’s environment ministry. A draft national park regulation would be drawn up as part of that process, with input from municipalities and interest groups, and then published for public consultation. The county and municipalities could subsequently state their positions again.
The area under discussion lies between Hilchenbach and Netphen. According to WDR, the plan covers around 4,300 hectares of state forest. Forestry would no longer be envisaged across most of the area. The county points to an extensive forest landscape, headwaters and habitats for species including the wildcat and black stork.
Nature conservation supporters expect the forests there to develop largely without human intervention. The debate has also raised the possibility of additional economic value being generated through nature-friendly tourism. The county administration believes that the scale of any such economic impact cannot be reliably assessed until the national park’s arrangements are more clearly defined.
For the timber industry, by contrast, the future use of the forest is the main concern. The conflict is therefore not simply about whether an area should be protected, but also about how conservation, raw material supplies and regional transport planning can be reconciled. The final rules would only be decided in the state-level process.
Editor: Andreas M. Brucker (Article created with AI assistance).