The endangered Capa Wood: NABU Leipzig has launched a petition to save the wood

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On 10 June 2026, the city council announced to the public that a 5.7-hectare wooded area on Capastraße was to be sold to the football club RB Leipzig. The club intends to build a training ground there. The woodland is an essential part of the network of habitats linking the northern and southern floodplain forests; it is an ecologically valuable habitat and plays a significant role in the city’s climate.

Furthermore, the area serves as a compensatory measure for previous construction activities. Against this backdrop, NABU Leipzig states that the plans are absurd. In NABU Leipzig’s view, the city council is primarily catering to the wishes of the Bundesliga football club and neglecting the interests of the general public. Furthermore, for reasons that are difficult to understand, the already fully sealed site of the Kleinmesse is to be granted grandfathering status, whereas the woodland is not. According to NABU, such decisions are out of step with the times in view of the global climate and biodiversity crisis.

The nature conservation organisation NABU Leipzig had already highlighted the ecological value of the small woodland
back in 2023 and has also been campaigning for many years to improve the network of habitats. NABU is protesting against the plans to sell and clear the woodland, and is urging that alternatives be found which do not further degrade the network of habitats but instead improve it. NABU Leipzig therefore proposes integrating the copse into the adjacent protected areas and preserving it permanently as a habitat. To this end, NABU Leipzig has launched a petition.

The petition can be found here.

Biodiversity and climate change

The woodland area, covering around five hectares, has developed over decades and now fulfils important functions for biodiversity, climate protection and ecological connectivity within the Leipzig floodplain forest. During a breeding bird survey carried out by NABU Leipzig, 38 bird species were recorded there, all of which are special species, some of which are strictly protected, as well as species listed as potentially endangered on the early warning list.

However, according to NABU Leipzig, the area’s significance extends beyond species conservation. The small wood forms the last forest corridor between the northern and southern floodplain forests and is therefore a central component of the network of habitats. Such corridors are vital to enable animals and plants to move between the two areas.

Leipzig also faces the challenges of species extinction and climate change. Over the past ten years, our city has already lost over 350 green spaces, as documented year on year by NABU Leipzig.

In the past, the City of Leipzig has repeatedly committed itself to protecting biodiversity, preserving valuable green spaces and enhancing urban greenery. Against this backdrop, NABU Leipzig states that the planned clearing of an ecologically significant area of woodland is incomprehensible. A forest ecosystem that has developed over decades cannot be replaced by compensatory measures or replanting.

Time to save the woodland

NABU Leipzig has therefore launched a petition at www.openpetition.org/waldrettung, addressed to the City Council.

In it, NABU calls for

1. the cancellation of the clearing of the small woodland between Capastraße and Cottaweg,

2. the permanent legal protection of the copse by classifying it under a suitable conservation category as a key component of the habitat network in Leipzig’s floodplain forest,

3. the transparent involvement of environmental organisations and the public in all further planning.

Leipzig needs greater protection for its valuable natural areas – not their further fragmentation, according to NABU. The copse between Capastraße and Cottaweg is an indispensable component of the Leipzig floodplain forest. Preserving it would strengthen the network of habitats, protect biodiversity and thus also benefit the people of our city.