Nature parks are valuable Natural and cultural landscapes, which are used by nature conservation departments of the federal provinces as Protected areas can be prescribed. They offer a unique and special landscape diversity, which is characterised by an interesting wealth of Animal and plant species as well as significant Living communities are distinguished. In addition to natural landscapes, cultural landscapes that have been shaped by the interaction of man and nature over time are maintained and preserved.
At Federal State Tyrol are currently Five nature parks officially recognised. The designation nature park is a distinction - a predicate - for a protected area and therefore does not represent a separate protection category.
The Tyrolean Nature Conservation Act 2005 describes a nature park in paragraph 12 as follows:
"The Land Government may declare by ordinance landscape protection areas, rest areas, nature conservation areas and special protection areas or parts thereof which are accessible to the general public, are particularly suitable for outdoor recreation or for imparting knowledge about nature and are suitably designed and maintained for this purpose as nature parks."
The existence and further development of these protected landscape areas is an important concern of the 48 Austrian nature parks (as of 05.03.2014; www.naturparke.at). According to the Association of Nature Parks in Austria, these nature parks cover a total area of around 500,000 ha (as of 05.03.2014; www.naturparke.at).
The Association of Nature Parks in Austria (VNÖ) describes a nature park as follows:
"A nature park is a protected landscape area that has developed from the interaction of man and nature. Often these are landscape areas that have taken on their present form over the course of centuries and are to be preserved by the people who live and work here through gentle forms of land use and landscape conservation. In the nature park, this cultural landscape of particular aesthetic appeal is made accessible to visitors through special facilities and made accessible as a recreational area."
These explanations already include three important functions of a nature park - Nature conservation, education and recreation. A fourth important field of activity is the Regional development. However, the nature parks in Tyrol have expanded their tasks, so that now five pillars carry the Tyrolean nature parks.
Please do not enter the gravel banks during the breeding season from the end of April to mid-August!
In this way, contribute to the protection of ground-nesting birds such as sandpipers and ringed plovers. People and dogs are among the biggest disturbance factors for the protected bird species.
