Country Report - Austria : Working Group 1 - Task 1.1. Description of the historical background that has led to the development of particular national Protected Forest Area frameworks

Vienna

2005

S. 11-26

Artikel aus einer ZeitschriftUnselbständiges Werk

200126510

The COST Action E27 was started in the year 2001 with the aim of delivering a comprehensive overview of European Protected Forest Areas. The objective of Working Group 1 of COST E27 is to give a
description of the historical background that has led to the development of particular national protected forest area frameworks. The Austrian paper concentrates on the following subjects: categories of protected forest areas in Austria (e.g. nature reserve, protected landscape, natural monument, national park), the characteristics of different categories of managed forests (e.g. protection forests), and hemeroby of forest ecosystems (i.e. the degree of anthropogenic influence on forests, or the unnaturalness of forests). The legislative processes on the conservation and protection of nature began centuries ago with decrees against over-exploitation of forests, paving the way for the protection of individual natural monuments in the 19th century and, later on, for conservation laws on the protection of landscapes and complete ecosystems. Austria does not have only one Federal Nature Protection Law. In contrast, at the regional level there are 9 different nature protection laws in force, resulting in a huge number of separate (but similar) categories of protection areas. For the first time, a study of the Austrian Federal Environment Agency enables a classification of protected forest areas of all Austrian provinces according to the criteria of the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE).