The legal protection of areas along the Green Belt in different categories is the most effective way of preserving the valuable habitats. The Green Belt is accepted as an important coontribution for the implementation of the international conservation area networks.
Among these are
The pan-European mapping project of the Green Belt, funded by the Federal Agency of Nature Conservation and coordinated by IUCN, analysed altogether 3272 conservation areas within a 25 km buffer on either side of the course. Among these are national parks, nature reserves, sites of community importance of the Habitats Directive, special protected areas of the Birds Directive und biosphere reserves.
Because of its remoteness, the whole strip is an almost unbroken section of European natural landscapes and habitats, representing all European biogeographic regions. But there are still valuable not protected areas along the Green Belt.