Last fall, a draft of the new German Forest Act emerged. What's it all about?

The draft of the new German Forest Act, which the Ministry of Agriculture has been working on for a long time, has been published on a forestry website. The draft would not have been intended for the public. We now know that the paper was genuine, i.e. it represented the status of work on the new law at the time.

There was a great deal of excitement in the mountain bike community as a result. What did it say that was so bad?

One article directly concerns the right of mountain bikers to enter the forest. This draft would have given the federal states the right to freely and without justification restrict cycling to only designated paths, i.e. to impose large-scale bans.

But some federal states are already very restrictive. How is this proposal worse?

The current Forest Act states: The federal states regulate the details. They can issue bans for important reasons. In the draft, there is no obligation to justify a ban. They could even issue driving bans on wide forest roads. That was probably never meant to be the case. The fact that we are allowed to ride on forest roads is probably undisputed.

Another article is causing a stir: it is called the "Komoot paragraph".

This paragraph prohibits digitally mapping paths where there are no paths. But behind this is also a lack of understanding on the part of legislators and forest owners as to how maps such as the Open Street Map [on which the Ride Trailmap is also based, editor's note] are created. The mappers simply map what they see. If a path is obviously there, they draw it in. We understand if forest owners don't like that, especially if there wasn't originally a trail. But if there is a path, then it shouldn't be a problem if it is mapped. The problem needs to be solved in practice, not in the digital world.

Nevertheless, the DIMB has also criticized this article.

We don't want anyone to unknowingly commit an offence just because they are following a trail and have made their Strava profile public. This could particularly affect orienteers or mushroom pickers who go cross-country. The article is worded too broadly.

What have the DIMB and other MTB organizations done since then?

We have consulted with other associations, the General German Cycling Club, the German Alpine Club, the Association of German Cyclists and other sports associations. Together, we have conveyed our concerns to the responsible ministry and hope to meet with understanding there. The Zweirad-Industrie-Verband organized a parliamentary evening, which we attended. There were discussions with politicians to whom we were able to explain our position.

What have you achieved?

We currently don't know what will be in the next draft, which will be sent to the associations for comment as part of the upcoming consultation with the federal states and associations - including us. But it is now public knowledge that it will be much leaner, less detailed and also contain less rigid rules.

The free pass for the federal states to impose bans is off the table?

We have information that this rule is no longer included. However, the definition of a route could be included instead. This would not have gained us anything.

Why not?

It cannot be implemented in practice. Paths in the forest are so diverse that the interpretation of path criteria raises more questions than it pacifies the situation. We want a path to be what the public understands a path to be. I want to be able to cycle on paths that I walk on. The decisive factor here is the behavior of the users. If problems arise locally, you can think about steering measures. The problem isn't which trails mountain bikers ride on anyway.

But rather

The unauthorized construction of trails is the core of the problem. And this is where awareness has increased. Many mountain bikers are aware that this is simply not an option. However, unauthorized trail building has also calmed down, the issue is no longer as hot as it was during Corona. We supervise a large number of trail construction projects and have had good experiences with them.

What has become of the Komoot paragraph?

Meetings have also been held on this topic. Representatives of the Open Streetmap community and navigation app providers have spoken to the ministry and explained to those responsible how the digital maps work. Forest owners or authorities can also set up an account and delete registered routes that have only recently been created. However, there is still a conflict between the authorities that delete existing historical paths from official topographical maps because they do not want them to continue to be used. Incidentally, such old paths are also often the basis for supposedly unauthorized trails. Mountain bikers have simply rediscovered them.

What happens next with the Forest Act?

The official draft should be presented to the associations in May, possibly even before this interview is published. They will then be able to comment. After that, there are usually three readings in the Bundestag, in which the members of parliament amend the law before finally voting on it and approving or rejecting it.

When is it supposed to come into force?

Once the Bundestag has approved the law, it will come into force. However, this may take a long time and it is possible that it will not happen in the current legislature. In 2025, Germany will elect a new parliament and a new government. The forest owners in particular seem to be working towards a new government drafting the final version of the law first.

The forest owners are also fighting the law?

Oh yes, much more vociferously than we are. Their arguments can all be read in the press. It's mainly about the issues between nature conservation and forest management.

Is it actually known who leaked the draft?

We don't know who the people are, but it's clear that the speaker's draft came from the Ministry of Agriculture and was made public on a forestry website. This is hardly something that happens by chance. But we as the DIMB do not allow ourselves to be involved in this type of political action.
 

Heiko Mittelstädt is a specialist consultant for the German Mountain Bike Initiative DIMB for topics such as access rights, nature conservation, tourism, trail concepts, planning, construction & maintenance of MTB trails and for the federal state of Baden-Württemberg as well as for the regions of southern Hesse and the Palatinate.