Press release No. 526 of 18 November 2021

WIESBADEN – There is a wide variety of ecosystems in Germany whose sizes vary considerably between regions. Their great importance for climate protection and biodiversity is increasingly a focus of public attention. The Ecosystem Atlas (only in German) of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) now makes the spatial distribution of ecosystems visible. 

Combining geospatial data to present carbon storing ecosystems

“The Ecosystem Atlas is based on the complete area balance sheet for all ecosystems. It is the first time that this was done for all of Germany without exceptions,” said Dr. Georg Thiel, President of the Federal Statistical Office, when he presented the Atlas at the Scientific Colloquium (only in German) “By combining geospatial data we can determine the ecosystem type of every area, be it ever so small. What we get is an accurate representation of the areas covered by floodplain forests and bogs, for instance. These ecosystems are particularly important for carbon storage and thus climate regulation.”

Great variety of the regional landscape becomes visible

Users can view detailed spatial data of each municipality or association of municipalities for as many as 74 different ecosystem classes. This makes regional differences visible. In the municipality of Backnang in southwest Germany, for example, the largest share of the municipal area was covered by orchard meadows (11% or roughly 1,900 hectares) in 2018. In Wittstock/Dosse in the northeast, approximately 3,300 hectares of heathland (8% of the municipal area) dominated the landscape. Changes in the ecosystems from 2015 to 2018 are shown as well.

In addition, separate thematic maps on settlement areas, farmland, forests, open land and water bodies show the wide variety of ecosystems in all of Germany. For example, field hedges are most widespread in northern Germany, while mixed forests can be found mainly in the southern part of the country.

Next expansion stages: State of, and services provided by ecosystems

The data basis used for the Ecosystem Atlas is the area balance sheet of the ecosystems, 2015 to 2018, which has been developed in cooperation with the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy. The area balance sheet is the first step in setting up a comprehensive reporting system of ecosystem accounts. As the next step to be done in 2022, the state of the ecosystems will be assessed by means of selected variables and indicators. The services provided by ecosystems to society, such as protection against erosion or flooding, will then be calculated.

Ecosystem accounts are an extension to environmental-economic accounts. It is planned to continue all ecosystem balance sheets in the form of time series at regular intervals. This reliable data basis on the use of ecosystems for mankind will allow decision-makers in politics and society to take adequate account of the services provided by the environment.

More information:

The Ecosystem Atlas and the tables on the area balance sheet of ecosystems are the first partial results of ecosystem accounts published by the Federal Statistical Office.

Detailed results on this topic are contained in the volume of tables on the area balance sheet of ecosystems on the environmental-economic accounting theme page.

More information on the methodology is available in the Methodenbericht.