In Austria, a "protection forest" (protective forest) is a special legal category of forest to protect assets (including special forest sites) from damage by natural or cultural hazards. Protection forests are subject to specific planning and controlling instruments as well as to special authorizations of forest authorities in relation to their management. The regulations do not differ in objectives and principles for forests in public or private ownership. The Austrian forest act distinguishes two categories of protection forests: site-protection forests and object-protection forests (ForstG 1975 idF 2002, § 21). An object-protection forest can also be a site-protection forest. The "Bannwald" (ForstG idF 2002, § 27) is a special legal sub-category of object-protection forest with a direct protective effect (function). The Austrian term refers to forests protected and managed under special supervision of the forest authorities because of the very high importance of the protective effect (or of another societal benefit from forest). This category was already implemented in the 1852 forest act and was maintained in 1975, 1987 and 2002. With the amendment of the 1975 forest act in 2002, two categories of object-protection forest were created: object-protection forests, which are a "Bannwald" or not. Be aware that the German language term "Bannwald" (ban forest) can refer to different conditions in detail. For example, the "Bannwald" according to the Bavarian forest act 2005 does not refer to the same situations and functions of forest as in Austria. Protection forests according to the Austrian forest act (ForstG 1975, § 21 (1), (2)) are forests with a "protective effect" but be aware that this term refers to the protective function. However, to fulfil the legal status of a protection forest, there must also be the need for special treatment of the forest. This is an additional condition and a special peculiarity of the Austrian forest law. However, the need for special treatment is not defined in terms of content, neither in the forest act nor in any other federal statutory regulation (Perzl et al. 2019 b). According to the Austrian legal regulations and terminology, a "forest with a protective function (effect)" is not the same as a protection forest (Perzl 2014). A forest with a protective function is a planning category of forest function planning for the designation of (protection) forests that require special monitoring and treatment in terms of the protective effect.
