Between Hohen­saat­en and Stet­tin (Szczecin), Ger­man and Pol­ish con­ser­va­tion­ists in the low­er Oder val­ley start­ed a cross-bor­der nature con­ser­va­tion project that unites peo­ple imme­di­ate­ly after the open­ing of the bor­der in Europe in 1990. The Pol­ish part (approx. 6,000 hectares) has been des­ig­nat­ed as a land­scape pro­tec­tion park since 1993, and the Ger­man part (10,500 hectares) as a nation­al park since 1995. On the Pol­ish as well as the Ger­man side, this core area of the Inter­na­tion­al Park is sur­round­ed by exten­sive pro­tec­tion zones, on the Ger­man side it is the 18,000-hectare nature reserve of the Low­er Oder Val­ley Nation­al Park. Togeth­er with the Pol­ish land­scape pro­tec­tion park Zehden (Cedy­nia), the Inter­na­tion­al Park Unteres Oder­tal cov­ers 117,000 hectares.

The Oder­aue is shaped by the riv­er or itself, its oxbow lakes and reed belts, by the peri­od­i­cal­ly flood­ed wet mead­ows and the near-nat­ur­al allu­vial for­est. The slopes bor­der­ing the val­ley are cov­ered by species-rich decid­u­ous forests, the peaks of flow­ery dry grass. These diverse types of life in a very small space enable a species diver­si­ty that is unusu­al for Cen­tral Europe. In par­tic­u­lar, the low­er Oder val­ley is famous for its abun­dance of birds.

In addi­tion, the flood­ed mead­ows of the low­er Oder val­ley pro­tect peo­ple from flood­ing and clean the water of the Oder riv­er with their exten­sive reed, reed and sedge pop­u­la­tion. Dur­ing the last dev­as­tat­ing flood in the sum­mer of 1997, the low­er Oder val­ley proved its worth in flood pro­tec­tion. Because of the vast flood­plains, nowhere were human facil­i­ties in dan­ger. The low­er Oder val­ley is one of the last large, unspoilt and uncut nat­ur­al land­scapes in Ger­many, the only Ger­man flood­plain nation­al park.

This wealth must be cul­ti­vat­ed and devel­oped for this and future gen­er­a­tions, for the sake of nature itself and for the ben­e­fit of peo­ple. We look for­ward to as many vis­i­tors as pos­si­ble, who famil­iar­ize them­selves with the nat­ur­al beau­ties of the land­scape, who get to know the rich flo­ra and fau­na, who admire and mar­vel at God’s cre­ation, or who sim­ply want to enjoy the won­der of nature. The low­er Oder val­ley offers some­thing for day and mul­ti-day vis­its alike, for young and old, is an ide­al trav­el des­ti­na­tion for the whole fam­i­ly, not least thanks to its con­stant­ly improv­ing tourist infra­struc­ture. It offers knowl­edge­able guides and sport­ing activ­i­ties, espe­cial­ly for cyclists and skaters. All vis­i­tors who want gen­uine, last­ing expe­ri­ences with and in nature are real­ly wel­come in the low­er Oder valley.