Germany: New Nature Activity Park „Panaroba“ to Be Built in the Bergisches Land Region

A new nature activity/adventure park is planned to be built on a former military site on about eight hectares of land on the outskirts of the city of Waldbroel in the Bergisch Land region in North Rhine-Westphalia. Located only 40 kilometers east of Cologne, the new park, dubbed “Panaroba”, aims to offer its future guests a unique blend of nature, leisure and environmental education, offering different leisure activities and overnight accommodation. The park will feature a barrier-free tree top walk with observation tower, an information portal with a water and adventure playground, a hedge maze, a cave labyrinth, a sensory trail, a nature experience academy as well as several accommodation offers including several cottages in three “global villages”, rentable tree houses and a family house (a total of 170 beds). Conference and seminar rooms and a 200-seat restaurant will also be on hand at the nature activity park. The newly founded Naturerlebnis Nutscheid gGmbH and the German Youth Hostel Association are the principal shareholders of the project while further shareholders are the Oberbergischer Kreis and the city of Waldbroel. The opening of the 13.7 million euro project, financed from NRW, EU and DJH Rheinland funds, is scheduled for summer 2015. (eap)