Sustainability is on top of the agenda

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A warm welcome! We would like to take you away for a moment and show you something very special. Please consciously pause for this moment. Close your eyes for and listen to what is around you. Our goal is to preserve exactly this. You are standing in the midst of a unique natural and cultural landscape - created over many, many centuries. It is the symbiosis of past and present that we aim to preserve this for the future.

The municipality of Jemgum is a member of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. This means that we are one of the three percent of the area of Germany with a particularly high significance. We are proud to belong to the pilot regions that stand for sustainable development and in which the coexistence of man and nature is to be developed in an exemplary manner. Especially against the background of man-made climate change, sustainable action is of enormous importance. The importance to action a harmonious symbioses rises significantly in our community, as more than 80 percent of our municipal area is a nature reserve and at the same time a European bird sanctuary. Furthermore the Dollart in the far north of our municipality, the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park, adds another sensitive protected area that borders directly on to our municipal territory.

A biosphere reserve fulfils various tasks: It promotes sustainable forms of economy, nature conservation, research and education for sustainable development as well as international cooperation. A biosphere reserve is divided into zones in which different rules apply. It must be representative of a particular natural area - but even more important are the people in the area and their ways of living and doing business that are as nature-friendly as possible. Biosphere reserves stand for a paradigm shift: nature conservation with and through people. They provide a framework for long-term sustainability processes and thus keep a landscape "viable". They are a seal of quality for tourists, they stand for new income and employment opportunities as well as for identity and pride in a region.