Photo: BMLFUW
Protection forests in alpine areas
With about 75 percent of its overall territory being Alpine land, Austria has the highest share of Alpine area of all Central European nations. More than 50% of Austria’s national territory are intensive zones of protection against alpine natural hazards.
In many mountain valleys the natural hazards of the alpine area represent a safety risk. The rising settlement pressure, the opening up of transport routes across the Alps and the development of the intensive utilisation of the mountains for tourism (skiing areas) have brought about a spatial extension of the endangered areas.Every year approx. € 120 mio are provided for the protection against avalanches, torrents, rockfall, and other erosions. As per law, the torrent and avalanche control sector is responsible for implementing the constructional control measures.
A natural ‘shield’ against those natural hazards is provided by protection forests. Forests constitute a natural barrier against avalanches and rockfall from the unstocked high-altitude areas. The high-altitude areas of the Alps are particularly strongly exposed to the temperature differences, to solar radiation and the strong wind, and are therefore more severely subject to erosion than the sites on forested slopes are.
The protection forest stabilises the often shallow forest soil and protects it against slope movement. The forest takes up precipitation and groundwater and thereby prevents mudslides.
According to the Austrian Forest Act protection forests are classified into site-protecting forests, protective forests (‘Bannwald’) and object-protecting forests.
· Site-protecting forests protect their sites, i.e. themselves.
· The protective forest is a forest whose utilisation is restricted by the authority either to provide
protection against natural hazards (avalanches, wind) or in view of positive environmental effects
(climate, water balance).
· Object-protecting forests are forests which protect humans, human settlements or agricultural
areas against natural hazards and injuring environmental impacts.
On an area of approximately 780,000 hectares of protection forest, which corresponds to about 20 percent of Austria’s forested land, sub-alpine spruce forests, mountainous spruce-fir-beech forests, dwarf-pine areas, and larch-stone pine forests are dominant.
As vegetation periods are very short in high-alpine locations, those high-alpine forests grow and regenerate very slowly. A big problem is the regeneration of the protection forest stands. Presently about half of the protection forest area is supplied with too few young plants to take over the protective function once the existing trees have become too old to fulfil this function. Other factors preventing regeneration include browsing by game, forest pasturing, overgrowing with grass, erosion, or lack of light due to excessively dense canopies.
The protection forest is particularly important as a safeguard for human habitats in alpine areas. However, there are limits also to the protective functions of the forest. Again and again avalanches, mass movements and storm tear considerable gaps into the protective forest belt, thus opening the way to other natural hazards. It is necessary that, where the effect of the forest does not provide full protection, security is ensured by means of technical or spatial planning measures.
In January 2002 the Austrian Protection Forest Strategy was signed by representatives of the Ministries, the Provincial Governments and the representations of interest of the forest owners, the territorial authorities, the economy, and the hunting sector. In protection forest forums the measures required for protection forests are to be harmonised and conflicting interests are to be balanced. Special importance was attached to the necessary regulations concerning forests and pastures and to a form of forest management which is in line with the requirements of protection forests and adapted to the respective situation.
In most Federal Provinces protection forest forums have already been set up. The Ministry of Life established a Federal Protection Forest Forum which serves primarily as a service agency for initiatives by the Federal Provinces. The Ministry of Life participates also in international projects supported by the European Union in order that the protection forest is managed to the required extent.
15.02.2008,