Forests play a particularly important role for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity on a global scale. Many forest ecosystems and species that naturally occur in Central Europe have specifically adapted to local environmental conditions. This also applies to Germany. A mosaic of manifold forest ecosystems has evolved here which has also been shaped by forestry interventions.

Since 1994 Germany has been a state party to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, CBD. Hence, Germany also bears a special global responsibility for the protection, sustainable use and fair and equitable sharing of benefits (from the use) of biodiversity of which a considerable part is located in forests. To secure the conservation of biodiversity and to support a sustainable use of forest biodiversity, the NFP participants addressed the following thematic areas:
reducing external hazards,
close-to-nature forest management,
forests and game,
nature conservation measures, protected areas and biotope networks,
genetic diversity of forest trees and shrubs.
Reducing external hazards
Forest biodiversity suffers primarily from man-made air pollution from industrial plants, power stations, traffic, households etc. Adverse effects caused by conversions of forested land, groundwater depletions and regionally excessive recreational traffic also play a role. Fragmentation through roads and the traffic density increasingly exclude many forests as habitats for vertebrate animals with larger home territories. Germany is almost unparalleled among the European countries in the number of roads built since the Second World War.
Selection of NFP recommendations for action in this regard:
further measures to curb air pollution,
continuing suitable silvicultural operations and compensatory liming to stabilize forests
preserving and promoting unfragmented areas of low traffic volume (e.g. through a nation-wide defragmentation scheme).
Close-to-nature forest management
Scientific studies have shown that semi-naturally managed forests can have a similarly great variety of species as comparable "natural forests" that have not been used for many decades. The concepts of close-to-nature forest management are based, to varying degrees, on the use of natural processes and self-adjusting mechanisms, last but not least for economic reasons.
Close-to-nature forest management aims to develop and preserve structurally diverse, stable forest stands with strong resistance to strains (e.g. extreme weather conditions, pest infestation and pollutant inputs) as well as a great adaptability with a view to future environmental changes (e.g. climatic changes).