In the border triangle of the federal states of Upper Austria, Lower Austria, and Styria lies one of the last large, near-natural forest areas in Central Europe. The Dürrenstein-Lassingtal Wilderness Area and the Kalkalpen and Gesäuse National Parks form the strictly protected cornerstones, with the Styrian Eisenwurzen Nature and Geopark located between them. Each of these protected areas is a natural jewel with unique habitats.

The Natural Forest Network project aims to secure the biotope network of the area and the interconnection of habitats.

The foundations for this were developed in an initial project, Econnect (2009-2011). Habitat models for the white-backed woodpecker, bats, and the alpine longhorn beetle were created, and public relations work and stakeholder engagement were initiated.

A follow-up project (2013-2015) was called the Natural Forest Network, which dealt more specifically with the forest. Under the leadership of the Kalkalpen National Park The forests' proximity to nature was assessed in more detail, and a corridor and stepping-stone model was developed based on this. For now, eight such "stepping stones" have been secured through contractual nature conservation in cooperation with the forest owners and are decommissioned. (As of 2025)