Background The Eifel National Park encompasses the counties of Aachen, Düren and Euskirchen in North Rhine-Westphalia and covers some 11 000 ha (110 km²). The park includes parts of six Natura 2000 network SCIs (sites of Community importance). The SCIs of the project area are characterised by deciduous forests, meadows rich in species, rocks with pioneer-vegetation and stream water-systems. The characteristic water, forest and wilderness habitats support a number of rare or endangered animal and plant species. The conservation status of four important forest habitat types – “Luzulo-Fagetum beech forests”, “Asperulo-Fagetum beech-forests”, “Tilio-Acerion forests of slopes, screes and ravines” and “Alluvial forests with Alnus glutinosa and Fraxinus excelsior” – has declined rapidly over the past decades. These rare or endangered habitats (listed in Annex I of the Habitats Directive) are threatened by spruce plantations, which supress the natural vegetation, and by spruce recolonisation or regrowth. As well as the forest habitats, the quality of the natural river courses has declined through the construction of weirs, which interrupt the free-flowing sections of the rivers, preventing the migration possibilities for fish. Bank areas and the riverbed have been altered and made more uniform; and important structures, which vary the flow speed and sediment distribution, are missing. Objectives The project’s overall goals are to develop and target the conservation of the four above-mentioned (see background) forest habitat types in the SCIs. A second goal is to improve the ecological conditions and dynamics of water courses and riparian sites within the project area. Migration barriers will be removed over large river sections and hard bank protections will be taken down. Thirdly, the project aims to reduce human disturbance in certain areas. Visitor guidance actions implemented by the project will create peaceful places in the forests and along the rivers. Expected results: The ecological condition of 60 km of creeks and rivers of the habitat-type “water courses of plain to montane levels” will be improved; The conservation status of the targeted four forest habitats will be improved on 550 ha; Management plans will be produced for three sub-areas within the overall project area; Some 18 ha of forest and meadows will be purchased; 82 migration barriers in rivers will be removed; Nine ponds that interrupt the river courses, will be removed or modified and structural improvements carried out in 22 sections of the river; Spruce trees will be removed on 63 ha; Regrowth spruce and Douglas fir will be removed on 500 ha; Beech trees will be planted to develop the desired forest habitat types – systems will be put in place to protect the beech saplings; A 5 ha area of open grasslands will be created; 6.3 km of roads and paths will be removed to encourage renaturalisation; Stone crayfish (Austropotamobius torrentium) will be introduced in three sections of the river.