The extension of the National Park Kalkalpen from the perspective of political ecology
Nigl Philip, University of Graz (AT)
The National Park Kalkalpen was founded in the year 1997. In the statute there is a declaration that the national park area should grow step by step. The reasons, why this has not happened in a sufficient range until today, are complex. On one hand the economic crisis and its aftermaths lead to a discontinuation in negotiations between representatives from the federal state Upper Austria and landowners in the year 2009. On the other hand some stakeholders act vehemently against the expansion of the national park. Therefore, the aim of this master thesis is to show the conflict potential of an enlargement at the local level and to integrate it into the concept of political ecology. The investigated areas are the nature reserves Haller Mauern, Bosruck and Warscheneck. In this scenario, the national park would grow from current 208,5 km2 to a total area of 267,86 km2. As empirical research method I chose the qualitative problem-centered interview. This method was used to summarize the opinions about the conflict potential from different perspectives. Afterwards, the findings were interpreted in the context of the political ecology. The results of the research show, that the national park expansion has a high conflict potential, although the areas of the expansion scenario are already under nature protection. The problem is that in case of a dedication as a core zone of the national park, the protection measures in the investigation area will be exacerbated with consequence for some parts of the local population. Especially the huntsmen would be affected, because conventional hunting would no longer be possible. Another conflict potential is because of the fact, that the nature reserve Warscheneck is a very interesting area for the tourism industry. There are plans to connect the ski resort Hinterstoder-Höss with the ski area Wurzeralm and for this purpose they have to utilize some parts of the protected landscape. The advocates of this project emphasize the importance for the regional economy and the creation and maintenance of jobs. The opponents classify the connection as an economic and ecological disaster. Such conflicts about environmental resources can be a good reason for politicians and residents which live in and around the potential area, to find a decision if they want to develop their region complied with the national park concept or not.