Eifel National Park

The Eifel National Park is the 14th national park in Germany and the first in North Rhine-Westphalia.GeneralThe aims of the Eifel National Park accord with those set out by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, IUCN. These require that at least 75 percent of the national park's area must be left to develop naturally - i.e. must not be given over to human use - within 30 years of the foundation of the park. Aims, mechanisms and executive bodies are laid down in the National Park Regulation (Nationalpark-Verordnung or NP-VO). The relatively young national park lies in the north of the Eifel region between Nideggen in the north, Gemünd in the south and the Belgian border in the southwest. The legal decree by the state that lays the foundation for the park has been in force since 1 January 2004. The area covers about 10700ha, is bordered to the northwest by the Rur Reservoir and includes the neighbouring Urft Reservoir, the former Vogelsang Military Training Area, but not the Nazi Ordensburg Vogelsang itself. The terrain of the former military training area run by the Belgian Armed Forces and used by NATO troops, the Dreiborn Plateau, forms about 3300ha of the entire area and has been open to the public since 1 January 2006.