Nature Park Management 2030+ / 2025-2028

Nature Park Management 2030+ / 2025-2028

With their cooperative management approach, mainly in cultural landscapes, nature parks can play a central role in the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework goal of effectively protecting at least 30% of the country's area. The prerequisite for this is that they systematically understand the central drivers of local biodiversity loss, such as the effects of climate change, changes in use due to social change or structural change in agriculture, and take them into account in the protective measures to be implemented.

The Ammergau Alps, Karwendel, Nagelfluhkette, Tyrolean Lech and Weißbach nature parks, which are located in the border region of Bavaria and Austria, are therefore setting up a joint, cross-border socio-ecological monitoring system with their activities (AT) in the project, which not only records the change in the nature conservation quality of the cultural landscape, but also the social causes for this change. In doing so:

• The change in habitats at the landscape level (e.g. changes in the distribution of forests and fields, increase in bush encroachment, weed infestation or neophytes on agricultural land) is recorded. This is done on the basis of a standardised field survey by means of "transect" walks by nature park rangers/staff and the use of remote sensing data (AT1.2).

• The changes in leisure use and the values of those seeking recreation were determined with the help of a joint quantitative visitor survey (AT1.3).

• The changes in the forms of use of land users and the relevant reasons for them are documented systematically and in compliance with data protection regulations (AT1.4).

The results of the social-ecological monitoring are incorporated into a decision-making system (AT 1.1), which forms the basis for the cooperatively planned, pilot protection measures (AT1.5). The focus is on extensively used grassland areas, which are of great importance for species conservation in the northern Alpine region. The following packages of measures will be worked on:

• Safeguarding the nature conservation value and manageability of grassland sites

• Restoration and networking of grassland sites

• Communication and awareness raising

ALPARC CENTR'ALPS checks the solutions developed locally in the 5 nature parks for their transferability to other parks, disseminates the project results in the parks of the German-speaking Alpine region (and beyond) and sensitizes politicians to the services of the nature parks with regard to the Global Biodiversity Framework (AT1.6).

At the end of the project, the output will be a tested set of instruments for social-ecological monitoring, a bundle of management measures in grassland that has been tested with stakeholders, and a guideline as well as policy recommendations. The central result of the project, which will be implemented by the participating parks beyond the end of the project and transferred to other protected areas, is the optimisation of nature park management on the basis of standardised socio-ecological monitoring.

Project period and type: 01.03.2025 - 28.02.2028 Interreg large-scale project BA0100193 project partners: Ammergau Alps Nature Park, Karwendel Nature Park, Nagelfluhkette Nature Park, Tyrolean Lech Nature Park, Weißbach Nature Park, ALPARC CENTR'ALPS Total costs: 1,273,942.95 with an ERDF funding of 75%