Mostly this nature reserve is spread out over the German counties Emsland, Grafschaft Bentheim and the Dutch province Drenthe.

The landscape within the nature park is characterised by big peat areas, heather, small lakes and a very low human population density.

Bourtanger Moor, the German part of the reserve, has a size of around 140 km2 (54 sq mi).

Originally Bourtanger Moor had a size of 3,000 km2 (1,200 sq mi) which shows that nowadays the remaining part covers just a small area of its former dimension.

The nature reserve is the home of several special plants like common cottongrass and drosera and endangered animals like the viviparous lizard, grass snake, short-eared owl and European nightjar can be found in this reserve.