Depending on the type of intervention, the Parks and Environment Department designs compensatory measures. One example of a diverse habitat that benefits a particularly large number of native animal and plant species is the orchard meadow. Here, herb-rich meadows with old fruit varieties are developed over many years. But small forests, extensive shrubbery, sandy grasslands, and water restoration projects are also part of this. What all LEFs have in common is that they are planned and prepared according to landscape conservation criteria. Once created, they are maintained in a natural way and cared for on a long-term basis.

LEF offers people further advantages beyond the legitimization of building rights:

• Promotion of human health through better air quality and green surroundings
• improving the urban climate,
• enjoyment of the beauty of nature and the landscape by experiencing the seasons even in the city,
• Improving the quality of the living environment and local recreation,
• intergenerational justice in the sense of leaving a diverse natural world and intact environment for one's children and grandchildren.

Please respect the nature conservation areas and observe the following instructions:

• Please stay on the marked paths.
• Keep the area free of structures such as benches, tables, playhouses, garden sheds, soccer goals, and uses such as compost heaps, waste deposits, rubble, and piles of earth.
• Only allow dogs to run on the paths and not on the compensation areas. Please dispose of dog waste in the residual waste bin.
• Please only plant flowers, trees, and shrubs in your garden, not on the compensation areas.

Join us in protecting nature's refuge for a shared livable environment in Mainz. You can download the information sheet here:

Construction areas result in interference with nature and the landscape. The law stipulates that unavoidable significant impacts must be compensated for. The respective impact must be compensated for on the affected area itself or through measures elsewhere.

The polluter pays principle also applies to compensation, which states that those responsible for the impact must provide compensation. These are, for example, the owners of a plot of land that has been converted from agricultural land to building land under building law, on which the construction of buildings is now permitted.

In Sections 135 a to c of the Building Code, the legislator stipulates, among other things, that compensation measures that cannot be carried out on the respective property must be carried out by the municipality in place of and at the expense of the project developer or the owners of the properties.

To cover these costs, a cost reimbursement amount for nature conservation compensation must be levied on the respective parties responsible for the intervention. The reimbursable costs (costs for land acquisition, planning, preparation, completion, and ongoing maintenance of the areas) are calculated according to the size of the building plots in the construction area. The extent of the intervention and the respective compensation measures are worked out in the respective landscape conservation plan and then specified in the corresponding development plan.

The collection of cost reimbursement amounts is regulated in Mainz in the "Statutes on the Collection of Cost Reimbursement Amounts in accordance with Sections 135a – 135c of the Building Code of the City of Mainz dated March 3, 1998" (Cost Reimbursement Statutes). The costs of permanent maintenance are regulated under private law, usually by entering a real burden in the land register for the respective landscape conservation compensation area.

These financial resources are then used to create new valuable biotopes for nature and the landscape. You can also recognize these in Mainz by the following sign: