Photo: LFZ/Buchgraber
Biodiversity in Austria’s forests
With an area of 3.9 million hectares (47 % of the national territory) the forest is, quantitatively, the most important landscape component which has been managed almost entirely over centuries.
Many species and habitats depend directly or indirectly on sustainable forest management. …To which extent and in which intensity did man influence the ecosystem forest, and how natural are Austria’s forests today?
From 1992 to 1997 these issues were assessed in the framework of a project directed by Univ. Professor Georg Grabherr from the Institute for Ecology and Nature Conservation of the University of Vienna.
With the Natural Forest Reserves Programme of the Federal government, the Austrian Forest Inventory, the project of the Federal Office and Research Centre for Forests (formerly Federal Forest Research Centre) and many activities of forest owners, Austrian forestry is making a significant contribution to this initiative.
Also in the ongoing Austrian Forest Dialogue a substantial amount of time and effort are dedicated to forest ecology.
02.04.2009,