Objectives of the Protective Forest Hub

The cooperation partners defined several objectives for the Protective Forest Hub. These are continuously adapted and supplemented. The main task are education and further education as well as the pooling of competences and knowledge.

In its declaration of intent for the Protective Forest Hub the four cooperation partners defined important objectives. They include inter alia:

  • Development of extra-occupational, practice-oriented, postgraduate and paedagogical education and training opportunities on the thematic blocks of protective forests, natural hazard management, sustainable mountain forest management, biodiversity in alpine forest ecosystems, hunting in protective forests, management of catchment areas, landscaping and civil engineering for forests and water, mountain forests and tourism as well as adaptation of forest ecosystems having a protective function to climate.
  • Priority-setting: Provision of information, training and further training, advisory services and awareness raising, pooling of knowledge and technology transfer.
  • Establishment and maintenance of model protective forest sites on locations of Österreichische Bundesforste AG in the Höllengebirge for the provision of knowledge about the impact of climate change on mountain forest ecosystems, alpine (protective) forest development as well as sustainable mountain forestry, as nature laboratory and as a training area for practical training courses.
  • Establishment and maintenance of a model torrent catchment area to teach the geological, hydrological, hydraulic, forest-engineering and civil-engineering connections under natural conditions, as nature laboratory and as a training area for practical training courses.
  • Development of a programme and of opportunities for practice-oriented training and further training for the specific qualification and specialisation of workers and experts in protective forests in cooperation with the Forest Training Centre, the technical forestry schools, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences as well as the Federal Provinces.
  • Hub for advisory services, knowledge transfer and technology transfer connected with protective forests for the target and stakeholder groups, in particular for forest owners, forestry services and infrastructure operators - in Austria and abroad.
  • Establishment of the central public knowledge and information platform schutzwald.at (in WWW and social media) in cooperation with the forestry sector, the Federal Provinces and the partners of the Protective Forest Hub.
  • Development of an educational programme for children and young people (schools) on the subjects of mountain forests, natural hazards and the protective effect of forests with priority programme “Biber Berti” in the framework of the planned meeting zone at the Waldcampus.
  • Establishment of a protective-forest conference centre at the Waldcampus Österreich.
  • Provision of the headquarters of the Austrian protective forest association “Schutzwaldverein Österreich”.
  • Promotion of the cultural heritage of protective forests in Austria.