There are virtually no natural landscapes left in Europe. Landscape ecologist Rainer Buchwald reports on how national parks approach an imaginary landscape and what he himself considers to be beautiful.

"Unfortunately, we don't have a fixed concept of nature in the natural sciences. As a landscape ecologist, I prefer to speak of landscape: by natural landscape, we mean an original landscape that existed a few thousand years after the Ice Age, before humans became sedentary and began to change it. This is what we as ecologists understand by "nature".

However, we have virtually no natural landscape left in Europe. Man has intervened everywhere - sometimes more, sometimes less. Perhaps there are areas in an inaccessible corner of Scandinavia or in a remote Pyrenean valley where man has never intervened. On a global scale, the situation is different: in deserts, high mountains or other inhospitable habitats, there are areas untouched by human influence. However, global influences such as over-fertilisation with nitrogen or climate change prevent us from preserving natural landscapes - even if we put a cheesecloth over an area.

The other term we are therefore working with is naturalness. Creating this is the aim of national parks. In practice, this means that based on a rather diffuse idea of a natural landscape, we develop mission statements to get closer to this imagined landscape - without human intervention. The idea is to allow natural processes to take place again, to let nature be nature - for example, that trees in a forest can decay, that there is old and dead wood with the associated fungal communities and beetle species. Being close to nature is already a lot these days. Happy examples of this are the Hainich National Park in Saxony-Anhalt or the Polish part of the Lower Oder Valley National Park. However, it takes decades or centuries to develop a more natural landscape - depending on the biotope and the initial situation.

But even if we accept that we live 99 per cent in a cultivated landscape, we can create a certain closeness to nature, for example by striving for the highest possible biodiversity. Aesthetics - and the associated experience - play a major role here. After all, a high level of biodiversity often offers a pleasant sensory experience, whether by sight, sound or smell. This applies to species-rich habitats as well as varied landscapes. I cycle a lot myself, for example. When I'm out and about in the Weser-Ems region in autumn, I often only see corn that is two metres high. But when I'm in the Elbe valley at the right time, I see beautiful meadows that are magnificently colourful. It's a sight for the gods. I can also give my children and grandchildren an impression of diversity and beauty."