By means of a long-term monitoring project, species diversity and abundance were analysed at 16 sites along an altitudinal gradient from 1 960 m to 2 830 m in Gurgler Kamm Biosphere Reserve (LTER site of the platform Tyrolean Alps; Obergurgl, Ötztal). A total of 108 permanent plots of 1 m² were established. The main aim was to observe effects of time in untreated sites and impacts of grazing exclusion on species number and frequency of functional groups in different subalpine and alpine plant communities. Grazing exclusion led to decreases in species numbers. Significant positive grazing effects were detected for dwarf shrubs and legumes in the subalpine zone and for herbs in the upper alpine zone. Within the untreated sites, species numbers and frequencies changed significantly with time, involving almost all functional groups. The lichen heath was the most stable community. Here, only graminoids showed an increasing trend. All in all, the intermediate disturbance hypothesis was found to be valid also for high altitudes. A continuation of the traditional grazing regime is therefore suggested for the entire Gurgler Kamm Biosphere Reserve.

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This paper discusses systemic aspects of protected area research with a particular focus on systemic governance. Protected areas are embedded within a dynamic system of socioeconomic-ecological interactions on various geographical, value-ethical, cultural and political scales. For example, recent energy politics exacerbates existing pressures on land use for renewable energy generation and challenges the goals and objectives of protection categories. The category or classification of a protected area according to the IUCN framework is influenced by the regional political and cultural differentiations, which concern all aspects of protected areas in their social, ecological and economic interactions. The category has an influence on how the local population is affected or benefits from the protection of an area, and what kind of visitors are coming to or engaging with the protected area. The category is also influenced by the acceptance of the local population and visitors or tourists. Protected areas increasingly operate as multifunctionally managed areas where visitors and inhabitants are integrated into the management concept. Category groups have a decisive and inverse influence on visitor management and protected area governance, which itself is steered by political and cultural characteristics. Changing value ethics of visitors affect the governance of protected areas and new partnerships need to be built for their sustainable management. This paper synthesizes such systemic aspects in a mountain context and concludes with an outline for future research.

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Freshwater biodiversity has shown to be highly vulnerable to climate warming. Boreo-alpine species are especially at risk in the Alps because they have to migrate to higher elevations to avoid local extinction. Effects of climate warming could be partly counteracted by creating new freshwater habitats: this would boost the population sizes of the endangered species and would increase the connectivity between Alpine waterbodies to facilitate the species’ upward dispersal and colonization of new habitats. Nevertheless, the localization of new habitats has to be carefully chosen, as successful restoration (or habitat creation) depends on many abiotic and ecological variables (e. g. habitats density and quality, connection between bodies of water, presence of targeted species, resistance of landscape to species movements). Furthermore, various socioeconomic drivers and actors determine the land and water uses in the Alps. Therefore we developed an innovative method for prioritization of areas for creation (or restoration) of small bodies of water, taking into account both ecological parameters (from species to landscape) and social ones. The method was developed in a test area (130 km2, in Canton Valais, Switzerland) representative of the Swiss Alpine landscapes and their associated socioeconomic activities. The proposed methodological framework consists of four steps which allow refining the geographical area to propose two or three small areas (some hectares) suitable for the creation of small water bodies. The first step investigates the regional scale, often several thousand km2, with a focus on environmental considerations: presence of historical or contemporary wetlands and waterbodies, presence of cold stenotherm species, and favourable landscape (in terms of land use) and socioeconomic context. The second step identifies areas of biological connectivity between source ponds and future host ponds for cold stenotherm species, taking into account the distance between source and host ponds and landscape resistance to the movements of propagules, finally highlighting the migration corridors. The third step checks the preselected areas with the aim of discarding catchments impaired by selective or diffuse pollutions. The fourth and final step is intended to enhance the probability of the project’s social acceptance: qualitative interviews and field observations are conducted on a local scale (often one km2) and options are evaluated with local stakeholders. Conducting the four successive and complementary steps ensures that the selected areas have a high potential for hosting the alpine biodiversity, and furthermore provide a favourable social framework for success in the short as well as the long term. Such a tool should promote and facilitate actions for conserving freshwater biodiversity in the Alps.

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In Hohe Tauern National Park one of the last post-glacial virgin landscapes in the central Eastern Alps was designated as a protected area. It is the largest national park in Central Europe and includes a significant section of the Austrian Central Alps shaped by glaciers and glacial periods. Its highly diverse flora and fauna is representative for all altitudinal zones of the Eastern Alps. Two thirds of the total area of 1 856 km² are designated as core zone and represent a natural landscape almost totally free of human intervention. Hohe Tauern National Park was founded in Carinthia in 1981, in Salzburg in 1984 and in Tyrol in 1992.

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The popularity of World Heritage status continues apace – more sites are included in the List every year. World Natural Heritage sites in particular are increasingly discussed as a promising strategy for reconciling conservation and sustainable development. By means of two case studies from East Africa – which are embedded in a global survey on the effects of World Heritage Status – this report analyses what actually happens in situ when World Heritage status is granted to an area. The studies show that the effect of this international conservation status should not be underestimated, especially with regard to institutional aspects.

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Glaciers are important and fast changing landscape elements in Hohe Tauern National Park (HTNP). In 1998, 10% of the HTNP area was covered with ice, less than half of the glaciated area during the Little Ice Age maximum. Glaciological monitoring includes mass balance measurements, glacier inventories, length change records and flow velocity measurements, complemented by climatological, hydrological and dendrochronological observations. All these data evidence the climate and glacier history of HTNP in an outstanding way, comparable to few other sites in the world.

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In 2013 the Austrian Man and the Biosphere (MAB) research programme, funded by the Federal Ministry for Science and Research (BMWF) and coordinated by a National Committee at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, making it one of the longest existing national MAB committees. This article provides a short history of the international MAB programme and the Austrian MAB National Committee and highlights selected top research.

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In Austria, Hohe Tauern National Park occupies a model position. Between 1981 and 1992, the federal states of Carinthia, Salzburg and Tyrol established the first Austrian national park as Hohe Tauern National Park (NP). If we consider a larger spatial level, however, a completely different picture emerges and the pioneer park turns into a latecomer. All neighbouring countries have considerably older NPs. The Swiss NP, the first NP within the Alpine Arc was established in the 1910s, around 70 years before Hohe Tauern NP. Had the people of Carinthia, Salzburg and Tyrol and all Austrians overlooked the emergence of NPs for decades? Did they care less about conservation than their neighbours? Or did they simply believe they could do without the internationally acclaimed instrument of a NP? As we will demonstrate below, such assumptions can definitely be refuted. All the same, there is no simple explanation, neither for the long delay nor for the eventual establishment of Hohe Tauern NP. Instead a complex bundle of factors emerges. The analysis is based on research done for our book Geschichte des Nationalparks Hohe Tauern, where you can also find detailed references for the statements made below (Kupper & Wöbse 2013).

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The English national parks are IUCN Category V protected areas. The governance of the parks is structured to achieve two purposes: 1) to conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage and 2) to promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities. There is also a secondary duty to foster the economic and social well-being of local communities within the park areas. This report examines the ways in which statutory planning processes have contributed to sustainable land use in the inhabited national parks of England.

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One eighth of the terrestrial surface are mountains, if surface ruggedness is taken as a criterion. Topographic roughness and steep climatic gradients over short distances explain the exceptional biological diversity of mountains around the globe. Habitat diversity also safeguards mountain biota against species losses in case of climatic change, simply because of the mosaics of contrasting micro-environmental conditions that offer short distance escapes. Experimental evidence revealed no benefits of rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations for growth and productivity of alpine plants, but nitrogen deposition bears the risk that slow growing and robust species may become overgrown by vigorous, less robust taxa. Land-use change is likely to exceed the impact of any other environmental change. As exemplified by statistics for the Hohe Tauern region in Austria, almost one third of the current vegetation will undergo dramatic transformations, for no other reason than reduced land use. Land-use policy and land management thus have priority over any other considerations in the context of global change in protected areas.

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