International measuring station
inspires partner companies

Every year, the National Park administration invites partner companies from the National Park region on excursions to provide insights into current nature conservation projects and to promote exchange between the National Park administration and regional stakeholders. Recently, one of these partner excursions led to the internationally important environmental monitoring platform at Zöbelboden - one of the best-equipped monitoring sites in Austria. Together with the Federal Environment Agency, the Kalkalpen National Park operates a large-scale long-term monitoring project there, which examines the effects of air pollutants and climate change on forest ecosystems and biodiversity, among other things.

Dr. Thomas Dirnböck, head of the Federal Environment Agency's research station at Zöbelboden, and Stefanie Tweraser from the Kalkalpen National Park guided the group of visitors through the various measuring stations. It became clear how valuable the data, which has been continuously collected for over 30 years, is: "They show successes of environmental measures but also problems with air pollutants that still need to be solved. The research results help us to determine how much carbon the forest can still bind in the face of increasing climate change," explained Dirnböck.

The exchange continued at the subsequent cozy get-together: Numerous questions about current activities and future plans of the national park were discussed with National Park Director Josef Forstinger. "The exchange with the region is very important to us," emphasizes Forstinger. "We rely on a close dialog with our partner businesses and the local population - under the motto 'sustainable - regional - authentic'. In this way, we not only want to provide information, but also strengthen identification with the national park and work together on the sustainable development of the region."