The “conservation versus recreation” conflict

The species diversity of the Sudgelande (Table 2) has, in principle, devel­oped without human intervention. The dry grasslands, in which most of the rare species are found, have emerged on nutrient-poor anthropogenic soils and are not suited to being trampled. If the small clearings of the grass­lands are made accessible to visitors, eutrophication and trampling will foreseeably lead to a decline of most of the rare species. Excluding visi­tors, however, contradicts the goal of urban nature conservation, which is, above all, to promote natural experiences for urban residents (Auhagen and Sukopp 1983). Keeping in mind the general lack of public acceptance for nature conservation in Germany (Korner 2005, there is all the more need in urban nature conservation to combine social functions with species con­servation functions.