The area lies in the Atlantic region of the natural area of the lowlands of the rivers Weser and Aller north of the German Low mountain ranges. Lake Steinhude is the centre of this area. It is the largest lake in Lower Saxony. It is surrounded by more or less natural moorland to the East, natural periodically flooded boggy alder woodlands to the South, West and East and some settlements. To the West, South and East of the Lake, there are also big areas of wet meadows.

Due to the area‘s high diversity of habitats and its location, it is of primary importance for nature conservation. It is one of the areas with the greatest biodiversity in Lower Saxony.

Several nature conservation projects, especially LIFE AMPHICULT (LIFE08 NAT/D/000005) created an outstanding habitat for amphibians at Lake Steinhude. There are well over 100 small ponds with different qualities offering potential breeding habitat for amphibians.

Our project wants to use those favourable conditions to reintroduce the fire-bellied toad. This will be a major contribution to the safeguarding of this species in the Atlantic region and to restoring the former geographic distribution of this species.

Size: 5,371 ha

Local contact: Ecological Station Lake Steinhude (German website only)