Gland, Switzerland, July 23, 2001 — At IUCN headquarters, the Director General, Achim Steiner presented Landesrat Georg Wurmitzer, Minister of the Provincial Government of Carinthia, a certificate granting the Hohe Tauern National Park international status as a National Park under IUCN category II. This large protected area (1800 sq km) in Western Austria, stretches over three provinces (Carinthia, Salzburg and Tyrol) and covers the highest mountains of the country (Großglockner) and some of Austria's main tourist areas.
"The Hohe Tauern National Park could be a model case in Europe for the "modern approach" to biodiversity conservation over a large landscape where social, cultural, economic and political needs of the local people are fully integrated," says Achim Steiner when presenting the certificate of Category II status to the Minister.
When established in 1981, Hohe Tauern was the first National Park in the country. However the Park did not until now have international recognition as a National Park. This status is accorded to protected areas that are managed mainly for ecosystem protection and recreation.
When an IUCN evaluation mission inspected the Park in 1986 a number of recommendations were made on the requirements for its category II listing as at the time private hunts were situated in the core area of the protected area and alpine grazing rights existed.
The Park was determined to attain international National Park status. This was no simple achievement. Because of the political and administrative autonomy of Austrian provinces the Park consists in fact of three legal entities, each with a separate management authority headed by a provincial director. On top of that the National Park has an unusual land ownership situation - 83% of the land is privately owned (62% by individual owners, 21% by the Austrian Alpine Club) and only 16% is owned by the three Provincial Governments.
The three Provinces, with the support of the Federal Ministry have made enormous efforts during the past ten years to take the necessary steps to attain category II status, thereby being confronted with and overcoming a wide variety of delicate political, administrative and management issues. The southern Province of Carinthia played a leadership role in this work and the category II listing has good support among the local people who derive a lot of their income from tourism. Salzburg and Tyrol Provinces have not yet completed all the required negotiations with their landowners to attain category II status over their parts of the Park.
Hohe Tauern National Park is a rather special case in Europe. Not only is it a very significant Park in Central Europe because of its size and ecological diversity, but it has been confronting and finding innovative solutions to some key issues facing biodiversity conservation today in the heavily populated areas of Europe. Besides its European-wide significance as a large protected area for alpine ecosystems, the National Park is an important example of combining the conservation of biological and regional cultural diversity, while at the same time also catering for the needs of the local people economically dependent on tourism.
IUCN evaluation teams (1986, 2001) commented on the diverse range of exemplary awareness-raising programmes with excellent educational facilities throughout the Park.
IUCN - The World Conservation Union has over the last 25 years worked to develop international criteria for protected area categories around the world. Through the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, guidelines have been developed to assist countries to apply a consistent terminology to protected areas. The six Categories are based on the objectives for managing the area. A National Park, Category II, is defined as a natural area of land and or sea, designated to
a) protect the ecological integrity of one or more ecosystems for present and future generations
b) exclude exploitation or occupation inimical to the purposes of designation of the area and
c) provide a foundation for spiritual, scientific, educational, recreational and visitor opportunities, all of which must be environmentally and culturally compatible.
Since the system of categories has been designed to permit international comparison, IUCN has played a key role in the consistent application of these categories. The UN List of National Parks and Protected Areas uses the IUCN criteria.
Other National Parks with IUCN Category II listing are Yellowstone National Park, USA, Ras Mohammed National Park, Egypt, Tongariro National Park, New Zealand, Waterton National Park, Canada. In contrast, Dartmoor "National Park" in the UK, while called a national park does not fit the IUCN Category II. While it is a landscape of great scenic beauty and significant biological diversity, it owes its origins largely to traditional hill farming practices, which continue to today.
For more information, contact Wendy Goldstein.
