Nature Park 2020 – Managing visitors in protected and recreation areas

When it comes to visitor management in nature reserves and recreation areas, we often face difficulties. Improving our management system and channelling visitors, guests and tourists should help us create a balanced relationship between man and nature. Besides an absence of visitor management, the area of the Nature Park also faces a lack of distinct, interactive and/or target-group-oriented information and active ways to appreciate nature. This often goes hand in hand with a lacking sense of the importance of preserving nature.

As a first step towards effective visitor management and knowledge transfer in the field of preservation in the Nature Park, this project focuses on three key areas (Honey Pots). These key areas, which are relevant from a tourism and nature preservation perspective, are the Lassing valley in Wildalpen as the heart of the Wildalpen Salza valley nature reserve; the Spitzenbach Gorge as a unique natural monument of partly endemic flora and fauna and geology; and last but not least, the Salza river. Due to its extreme popularity with white-water enthusiasts, managing river visitors is key to the preservation of the sensitive river landscape – especially if we consider that we are talking about one of the last undeveloped rivers in Central Europe.

In addition to adapted visitor management, there is a necessity for modern and colourful display boards and information concerning the issues of nature preservation, biodiversity and the level of hazards (e.g. neophytes).

Eventually, we would like to see that these initial actions allow distinct natural areas to remain largely or entirely unaffected by man. These management tools and activities also help us protect nature in the Nature Park area. This is how the Styrian Eisenwurzen Nature & Geopark can make a major contribution to the preservation of local recreation areas and protected areas – now and regarding future generations.

Supported by the State of Styria and the European Union (LEADER).