Conflict Management - Case studies from the Austrian Natural Forest Reserve Programme
Herfried Steiner (deputy for Janine Oettel), BFW - Federal Research Centre for Forests, Vienna (AT)
The Austrian Natural Forest Reserve Programme consists of 195 Reserves, mainly represented by small scale areas of 5-20 ha in size. This large number of individual areas requires a lot of monitoring und maintenance activity. Furthermore, various conflict events are occurring. Conflicts can generally be distinguished between legal issues, such as contract violation or traffic safety measures, nature conservation demands including browsing by game or neophytes and public interests contrary to the protection aims of the Programme. Though legal standards and regulations exist, case studies exemplify that each situation has to be evaluated separately in order to find a compromise between all stakeholders.