2020+ Strategy for Austria's National Park
by Liliane Dagostin, the lawyer heading the ÖAV’s department for Planning and the Protection of Nature. Translated and edited by Irene Auerbach
Nothing moves us as much as that which is pristine. The new strategy for National Parks aims at allowing us to experience the value of untouched nature.
As far as the conservation of nature is concerned, the six Austrian National Parks are special among the many protected areas, not only because of the Großglockner, which - as the highest point of Austria - enjoys special protection: there are also other members of mountain nobility like the Hochalmspitze, queen of the Tauern range, and his world-weary majesty the Großvenediger.
Descending to the Mooserboden See from the Heinrich-Schweiger-Haus, Hohe Tauern
Photo Martin Haydon
A rare beetle is granted living space by the beech forests of the Gesause, while the National Park just outside Vienna owes its international recognition to its expanse of wetlands, and in the smallest of Austria’s National Parks, the Thaya valley on the Czech border, the wild cat has resettled.
For the last couple of years the Council for National Parks has been working intensively on a new strategy for Austria’s National Parks. The ÖAV is one of six environmental organisations represented on this council, discussing fundamental questions concerning the future of the National Parks. These include finding ways of dealing with the highly harmful bark beetle, to limits on Park exploitation for the generating of renewable energy. And who pays for damage caused by leaving dead wood standing beside paths? This is the continuation of the first five year strategy for national parks worked out in 2010 and successfully implemented.
The central task of the National Parks remains as before: protecting unspoilt nature. This should be achieved by allowing nature to take its course. According to the rules of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which has recognised all six Austrian National Parks, at least 75% of the area must no longer be used for economical purposes The National Park Hohe Tauern is an exception: here the 75% applies to the core zone, while the comparatively large outer zone (with its ecologically sensitively managed agriculture) serves as a buffer against the surrounding areas of settlement.
The strategy sets up six areas of action, with the main accent on increasing support to developments uninfluenced by human interference, the preservation of biodiversity, on making use of synergies between the National Parks, and on joint professional representation to the outside world under the label of “Austrian National Parks”. Additionally the desire has been put on record that, where possible, within each natural zone, suitable areas will be designated as wilderness.
Wilderness can be defined as the area where the land and its natural occupants remain unfettered; humans appear only as visitors but do not hang about permanently. The governing principle is not to leave any traces behind. Therefore visitors must behave somewhat differently in a wilderness area: they must keep to the paths. Such areas will be designated only in the core zones of National Parks, and the demand for a minimum area of 3,000 hectares makes ecological sense.
However, it might be counter-productive to designate popular (and busy) walking and climbing areas as wilderness and, if a National Park decides not to establish a wilderness area, that will make no difference to its recognition as a National Park. Work on maintaining paths and supporting the safety of paths and routes, even if they require machinery, will continue to be permitted.
If in the 19th century the alpine clubs instigated the opening up of the alpine region for tourists and scientific research, as early as the end of that century they considered the retention of the Alps in their beauty and pristine quality as a further responsibility. In 1927 the protection of nature became part of the constitution. Today all alpine clubs actively fight the destruction of nature, try to reduce pressure on the environment and support developments that help this.
The ÖAV engages in this not only with ideas: in the National Park Hohe Tauern with its 333km2, the ÖAV ranks among the major land owners, the one at highest altitude. At the end of WWI Albert Wirth, owner of a wood processing factory in Villach, offered the ÖAV the opportunity of buying the first 4000 hectares of ground around the Pasterze. Thus ownership of the most beautiful and longest glacier in the eastern Alps, and of its surroundings, was transferred to the ÖAV, thus enabling free access to the Großglockner. It was the intention that this area was also to be protected from “profanation” by mercantile exploitation in perpetuity, thus linking the donation to the establishment of a nature reserve.
During the course of the last century a further 29,000 hectares were gradually added, with the Hochalmspitze in 1988 being the last successful acquisition. We owe this purchase to the strategic nouse of the then Chair of the Kamten ÖAV; because of it, plans to develop the Hochalmspitze into a summer ski area could be stopped. The cash was supplied by Heinz Roth, who had established a foundation for the purpose of purchases protecting areas from “technical development”. The new National Park strategy for all six Austrian National Parks seconds this, at least with the National Park Hohe Tauern in mind.
The ÖAV, in its 2013 AGM in Dornbirn, unanimously reconfirmed this: protected areas are crucially important and must be preserved, from the Donau wet-lands to the Lake of Neusiedel, the extension of the National Park Kalkalpen (chalk alps) to the region of Berg Isel near Innsbruck.
Therefore, as far as possible, the ÖAV will - alongside its own programme of fundamental objectives - contribute to the implementation of the National Park strategy.
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