The year 2002 has been a further important year for the development of the Carinthian National Parks. There wre two main focuses for the park management: first the further development of the wilderness area management based on the criterias of the IUCN for a "Category II" National Park and second a lot of activities related to the "International Years of Mountains", announced by the United Nations. Hohe Tauern National Park: Wilderness Area Management: It has been the "year after" the sucessful "International Recognition" of the Hohe Tauern Park in Carinthia. Such a year in always difficult to handle, but now we can claim, that we have succeded: More than 21.00 ha of the core zone are now under contract of the National Park funds, as "wildlife management areas". On these areas the "wildlife management", operated by our wildlife rangers, took place without any incident: - 261 times our ranges were on partrol, controlling and monitoring selected wild species, like red deer or chamois. - The monitoring programs on the golden eagle and the bearded vulture has been continued and a new one on the brown bear has started. Our model "nature protection by contracts" was successful again: - None of the 431 contracts has been cancelled by the property owners and a new one, the Austrian State Forest Company has entered this model too. - 2002 the National Park Fund raised a total sum of more than 392.000,-- EURO for these contracts. International year of Mountains: The National Park Fund has realized a lot of activities during this important year for mountain areas: - Our activities started with the well received and spectacular "1st Festival for Mountains", April 27 at the University of Klagenfurt. - In June the important "European Conference" of the "World Conservation Union - IUCN" took place in Carinthia, at Poertschach/Woerther Lake. - July 15, the Austrian Alpine Club and the National Park Fund signed at pathbreaking partnership contract, which will last for the next 30 years. - A special project, called "Infopoints" has started, including different instruments benefiting the alpine tourism. - Among the further activities related to the "International Year of Mountains" were a highly acclaimed seminar of the "National Park Academy", handling the topic "Alpine Convention" and "A Memorandum of Understanding" with the Himalayan National Park in Nepal. Further activities: Beside these two main focuses, a wide spectrum of other activities has been realized by the park service. F.e. our various nature experience programs with more than 11.000 participants and our visitor centres with more than 85.000 visitors were hot spots for the regional tourism again. The volunteer program took place for the 11th time and the first "volunteer veteran meeting" was well received. Our trail workers looked after more than 550km park trails and 15 information trails. And the park succeeded in raising subsidies from the European Union, including the INTEREGG IIIA and INTERREG IIIB program. The Hohe Tauern National Park has became more and more an attractive sponsoring partner for responsible companies. Most of them are members of the "Club of the Friends of the Hohe Tauern National Park". Since several years one of the most successful projects of the club is the mobile "Waterschool".
