Since the Nature Conservation Act in Baden-Wu¨rttemberg came into force in 1975, the number and total area of landscape reserves have increased significantly from 540143 ha in 1975 to 810426 ha in 2012. This means that about 23 % of the area of land in Baden-Wu¨rttemberg is protected as landscape reserve today. Similar to the large conservation areas, the larger landscape reserves are aimed at fulfilling important and diverse functions: firstly, to serve as buffer zones between intensively used areas and nature reserves and areas with a high concentration of legally protected biotopes (Ho¨ll 2014);