The Low­er Oder Val­ley Nation­al Park Foun­da­tion was found­ed in 1995 by the State of Berlin, PCK Raf­finer­ie GmbH, from Asso­ci­a­tion of Friends of the Ger­man-Pol­ish Euro­pean Nation­al Park “Unteres Oder­tal” and the state of Bran­den­burg as a donor as a foun­da­tion under civ­il law with legal capac­i­ty and endowed with endow­ment cap­i­tal of DM 2 mil­lion. A board of trustees of ten inter­na­tion­al­ly known experts over­sees the work of the board. Since 1995 the chair­man of the board of trustees has been the long-time direc­tor of Zoo and Tier­park Berlin, Dr. Bern­hard Blaszkiewitz. The board of direc­tors is the biol­o­gist Dr. Ans­gar Vössing.

According to its statutes, the foundation has the following tasks:

  • The pur­chase and long-term lease of suit­able areas in the Low­er Oder Val­ley and the adja­cent areas and the main­te­nance of these areas in accor­dance with the Main­te­nance and devel­op­ment plan and the goals of a nation­al park.

  • Sup­port for the estab­lish­ment and devel­op­ment of a Ger­man-Pol­ish Euro­pean Nation­al Park “Unteres Oder­tal” in accor­dance with the guide­lines of the IUCN, Cat­e­go­ry II.

  • The pro­mo­tion of nature-friend­ly land use, eco­log­i­cal envi­ron­men­tal edu­ca­tion and nature con­ser­va­tion-ori­ent­ed research in the Low­er Oder Valley.

  • The pro­mo­tion of Ger­man-Pol­ish under­stand­ing in the field of nature and envi­ron­men­tal protection.

Board of directors

Dr. Ansgar Vössing

Dr. Ans­gar Vössing

Dr. Ans­gar Vöss­ing, born in Berlin in 1957, did his doc­tor­ate after study­ing biol­o­gy, the­ol­o­gy and phi­los­o­phy in Berlin and Mün­ster with a the­sis on the social learn­ing of pri­mates in the zoo. He worked as a lec­tur­er at the Freie Uni­ver­sität of Berlin, as a teacher at Berlin schools and as a jour­nal­ist for the Berlin­er Mor­gen­post before he became speech­writer for the Gov­ern­ing May­or of Berlin in 1988. From 1989–1991, the mar­ried father of four chil­dren worked in the sci­en­tif­ic advi­so­ry ser­vice for the par­lia­men­tary groups in the Berlin House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. From 1991–1993 he worked for the Bran­den­burg Min­istry of the Envi­ron­ment as a cab­i­net, par­lia­ment and fed­er­al advi­sor, lat­er main­ly as head of the Low­er Oder Val­ley Nation­al Park Admin­is­tra­tion (under con­struc­tion). In 1993 he returned to the Berlin Sen­ate Chan­cellery as head of the depart­ment for polit­i­cal plan­ning and pol­i­cy mat­ters and as deputy head of the press and infor­ma­tion office. Since 2002 he has been respon­si­ble for envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion, research, edu­ca­tion, cul­ture and media in the depart­ment for fed­er­al and Euro­pean affairs. On numer­ous trips through four con­ti­nents, he was able to get an overview of nature con­ser­va­tion work in the world’s most impor­tant nation­al parks. On a vol­un­tary basis, he is the vice chair­man of the Asso­ci­a­tion of Friends of the Ger­man-Pol­ish Euro­pean Nation­al Park Low­er Oder Val­ley e.V. and as a mem­ber of the board of the Nation­al Park Foun­da­tion Low­er Oder Valley.

The foun­da­tion was ini­tial­ly involved in envi­ron­men­tal edu­ca­tion, vis­i­tor infor­ma­tion and the prepa­ra­tion of excur­sions, and since 2002 it has also invest­ed heav­i­ly in land acqui­si­tion. Since 2015, the Nation­al Park Foun­da­tion has also been involved in the pur­chase of land in the Randow quar­ry, in par­tic­u­lar for food habi­tats in an extreme­ly inten­sive­ly used land­scape for the very rare and endan­gered spot­ted eagle (Aquila poma­ri­na) to cre­ate on this. Öko Agrar GmbH acquired already six­ty hectares between the Blum­berg For­est and the Zichow­er Forest.

The foun­da­tion is both spon­sor­ing and oper­a­tional. With the found­ing of her one hun­dred per­cent daugh­ter, the Inter­na­tion­al Park Low­er Oder Val­ley GmbH, sub­mit­ted to them (see there). But she has been tak­ing care of that excur­sion pro­gram since 1998, in which sci­en­tists from their part­ner orga­ni­za­tions, in par­tic­u­lar from the Muse­um für Naturkunde Berlin, from Zoo and Tier­park Berlin, but also from uni­ver­si­ties and research insti­tu­tions in the region, guide vis­i­tors through their spe­cial­ist areas free of charge, sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly chal­leng­ing, but also gen­er­al­ly understandable.

In 2013, in addi­tion to Inter­na­tion­al­park Unteres Oder­tal gGmbH, she also found­ed Öko Agrar GmbH Unteres Oder­tal, in which she bun­dles her agri­cul­tur­al activ­i­ties (see there). This includes keep­ing and breed­ing of Water buf­fa­lo in Friedrich­sthaler (5/6) and Fid­di­chow­er Pold­er (10), but also from Bison next to the Criewen­er Park. The near­ly one hun­dred water buf­fa­lo are intend­ed to demon­strate an eco­nom­i­cal­ly and eco­log­i­cal­ly sound bal­ance between nature con­ser­va­tion and agriculture.

The bison breed­ing (2016: 2.4) is not only intend­ed to make a con­tri­bu­tion to the con­ser­va­tion of the last wild cat­tle in Europe, which was at home in the Low­er Oder Val­ley long before the Bran­den­burg state gov­ern­ment and the nation­al park admin­is­tra­tion, but also pro­vide impe­tus for tourism will.

The Nation­al Park Foun­da­tion has been edit­ing this since 2004 Nation­al Park Year­book Low­er Oder Val­ley, a forum for every­one who has some­thing to say about rur­al issues in this region. The most impor­tant con­tri­bu­tions with a region­al ref­er­ence can be found at Pub­li­ca­tions.

The Nation­al Park Foun­da­tion works close­ly with oth­er nature con­ser­va­tion foun­da­tions. She is also inter­est­ed in dona­tions that are also ear­marked for a spe­cif­ic purpose.

Donate

Account details:
Account no .: 350 106 40 (Stadtsparkasse Schwedt)
Bank code: 170 523 02
IBAN: DE15 1705 2302 0035 0106 40
BIC: WELADED1UMX

If you need a dona­tion receipt, please give your exact address on the trans­fer slip. Thanks.