Garden and landscape culture in the Harz Mountains of Lower Saxony

The Lower Saxon part of the Harz Mountains has a special landscape diversity and biodiversity with its mountain meadows and forests or with its widely ramified system of ponds and canals of the Oberharzer Wasserwirtschaft. It has developed over centuries in interaction with mining, spa operations and tourism and is also reflected in the building culture with its gardens and parks and regional building styles.
The Harz is thereby in the change and in the adaptation to changing economic, ecological-climatic and social conditions. So also topically, if one looks for example at the demographic developments, the lining up transformation of the spruce forests or the surely also by the Pandemie promoted, again rising routistic demand.
Before this background, the project "Garden and landscape culture as a contribution to sustainable regional development - approaches, methods, transferability" started at the end of 2021, in order to support these changes positively.
The Niedersächsischer Heimatbund NHB e.V. and the office freiraumforum schoelkopf, commissioned with the implementation until mid-2024, see themselves as moderators and catalysts for a sustainable development process. After evaluating the gardens and parks and the landscape, a working group "Garden and Landscape Culture West Harz" will form a picture of the historical and current significance of these open spaces for the region and what new images/ideas for future use by and for the people of the Harz can be created. Impulses are also given via proven and social media in order to reach a multi-layered group of actors and users. In particular, civic engagement will be activated to take up and develop new local and regional points of contact.
Out of the LEADER region Westharz emerged, the project funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection offers the opportunity to realize individual projects with financial support in the new EU funding period 2023-2027.
As a result of this model project, other regions in Lower Saxony will also benefit from the study through transferable recommendations for action and networking with the state initiative Garden Horizons.