Flusslandschaft Elbe Biosphere Reserve

UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, inscribed 1979, in Germany. The transregional Flusslandschaft Elbe is Germany’s largest inland biosphere reserve. The five federal states, or Länder, each hosts a different share of the biosphere: Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein. The reserve is representative of the glacial valleys of the northern German older moraine landscape. This centuries-old cultural landscape contains numerous, spatially connected river and alluvial features and corresponding near-natural habitats. The integrated protection of a major river alluvial system across five Länder within a single biosphere reserve is unique in Germany.