Ecological basic units

The following text was made with minor amendments and additions from the page “National Inventory” FGRDEU of the Federal Institute for Agriculture and Food (BLE; https://fgrdeu.genres.de/nationales-inventar/herkunftsgebiete/fov-herkunftsgebiets-vo/) taken over. The National Inventory is a contribution to the implementation of the “Concept for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Forest Genetic Resources in the Federal Republic of Germany”. As a basis for the horizontal demarcation of forest areas of origin, 46 “ecological basic units” are designated nationwide for the entire federal territory. The ecological basic units are formed from one, but mostly from several growth areas and possibly from growth districts. The basic ecological unit is the smallest building block to describe the horizontal demarcation of a region of origin. The growth areas and growth districts for the former federal territory were taken over from the publication “Forstliche Wuchsgebiet und Growth Districts in the Federal Republic of Germany” by the Working Group of Locations in the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Forsteinrichtung, Landwirtschaftsverlag Münster-Hiltrup, 1985. The growth areas in the new countries, except Thuringia, are based on the publication of Kopp and Schwanecke "Space Division in the Forest. Forest growth areas of the East German federal states", The Forest 1991, issue 11. These growth areas have been developed by the new countries. The delimitation of the growth areas in Thuringia was published in the communications of the State Institute for Forest and Forestry, Gotha, issue 3/1993. The boundaries of the basic ecological units are defined and designated in the “Overview of basic ecological units for the demarcation of forest areas of origin” of the FoVHgV. Each basic ecological unit has a number. An abbreviation of the basic ecological units does not exist, but the borders are verbally described according to geographical and administrative boundaries — based on fixed infrastructure lines (roads, railway lines, rivers/channels, state/land borders). For simplification, small deviations from the boundaries of growth areas are accepted. The spatial data stock contains the digital boundaries of the basic ecological units, on the basis of which the areas of origin for forest timber derive according to the Forest Propagation Goods Act (FoVG). In the case of species subject to the FoVG, an orientation is recommended for the interpretation of the concept of occurrence areas based on the indications in the “Guide for the Use of Local Woods” (BMU 2012). For forest species with more than six areas of origin, the presented classification (areas) for local woods should apply, while for forest species with less than six areas of origin the areas of origin according to FoVG should apply. See also https://tlubn.thueringen.de/naturschutz/bot-artenschutz/gebietseigene-gehoelze/ . The limits serve as a basis for the implementation of Section 40(4) of the BNatSchG within the framework of support measures, plans and projects of any kind in which the application of wood propagating material (seeds, cuttings, preferred woods) into the open nature plays a role.