Ninety eight official
nature parks have been established in
Germany under section 22, paragraph 4 of that country's Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG). They comprise about 25 percent of the total land area of Germany and are brought together under the Association of German Nature Parks. Parks that overlap into neighbouring countries are led by Europarc. The oldest is
Lüneburg Heath Nature Park, whose core area was established in 1921 as a nature reserve; by 2007 it had expanded to more than four times its original area. The largest nature reserve in Germany, with is the Nature Park of the Central and Northern
Black Forest and the smallest is
Siebengebirge with an area of .