Update of the Nature Park Strategy

A particular challenge in 2024 was the process of creating an update of the nature park strategy. Our new strategy defines the development priorities for the next five years and is a prerequisite for applying for funding from the state of Lower Austria. 

The new nature park strategy builds on the previous 2019 strategy and expands on it. 

Involvement of local decision-makers and external experts 

As a first step, we invited key local and regional decision-makers to a workshop where we jointly evaluated the status of the nature park and identified opportunities for development.

Building on this, we organized further workshops with external experts on the topics of education and nature conservation in order to set priorities for our future work. 

On the topic of regional development, we networked with the City-Suburb Management (SUM) for the Greater Vienna Area & Surroundings. A major success was that, with the support of SUM, we achieved the agreement of the City of Vienna's Forestry Administration MA49 to incorporate the Georgenberg area into the Nature Park from 2025.

Online survey to involve the population

However, we wanted to involve not only “experts” but also the population. Therefore, we conducted an online survey in August and September. Our goal was to gather feedback on our offerings and identify potential improvements for the development of the nature park. 87 participants responded and provided insightful feedback on their expectations for the nature park.