Biodiversity and protected assets

"Biosphere parks are areas that have received international recognition under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program. The aim of biosphere parks (or biosphere reserves) is to create a balance between the protection of biodiversity, the promotion of economic and social development and the preservation of the respective cultural values", as stated in the Biodiversity Strategy Austria 2030+, which was published in December 2022.

Only areas that have a particularly high proportion of valuable, natural and near-natural ecosystems can be designated as biosphere reserves. These areas make an important contribution to the preservation of existing biodiversity through their core and maintenance zones as well as through awareness-raising projects. Rare or endangered animal and plant species can also be found in habitats that have been used and altered by humans for centuries. In the Großes Walsertal, for example, these are traditionally managed mountain meadows preserved by farmers, which often have a high level of biodiversity and are a habitat for rare species.

The protected assets of an area are particularly typical and rare or endangered habitats and/or species for whose conservation the Natura 2000 protected areas have been designated. This European protection status obliges the federal states to protect, preserve and, if necessary, improve the habitats. www.naturvielfalt.at

The following FFH protected areas have been designated in the Gadental European nature reserve:

• Rock ptarmigan
• Black grouse
• Acidophilous spruce forests
• Lady's slipper
• Limestone and limestone slate screes
• Limestone cliffs with crevice vegetation
• Calcareous fens
• Carbonate mountain pine scrub
• Mixed ravine and slope forest
• Black woodpecker
• Spruce forests
• Woodruff-beech forest

The following FFH protected areas are designated in the Unterüberluth European nature reserve:

• Mountain meadows
• Calcareous fens
• Near-natural dry calcareous grassland