Local district administration and communities

The 56,760 hectares of the biosphere reserve cover parts of the administrative district of Lüchow-Dannenberg – the Elbe marshes of Gartow and Dannenberg – as well as parts of the district of Lüneburg – the Lüneburg Elbe marshes and the sub-district known as Amt Neuhaus.

In the district of Lüchow-Dannenberg there are three ‘Samtgemeinden’, i.e. groups of villages under a common local administration, which lie wholly or partly within the biosphere reserve borders, with a total biosphere area of 19,933 hectares. These Samtgemeinden are Elbtalaue, Lüchow and Gartow. The district of Lüneburg contributes 36,850 hectares covering the town of Bleckede and the Samtgemeinden of Scharnebeck, Ostheide, Dahlenburg as well as the sub-district of Amt Neuhaus.