Norbert Weixlbaumer

Participation and Regional Governance. A Crucial Research Perspective on Protected Areas Policies in Austria and Switzerland

Current management of large protected areas is faced with the twofold challenge of fulfilling its core mission of nature conservation and landscape protection while also responding to more complex societal expectations. The latter refer to regional development in particular and shaping of the future in general. Accordingly, research into protected areas should shift its focus towards regional shaping of the future within the framework and by means of large protected areas, if expectations are to be met. This would reflect the paradigm shift in area protection we have witnessed, transferring its emphasis increasingly towards the societal significance of protected areas on one hand and the integration of protection and development on the other. This contribution follows up on the results of a workshop organized by an international panel of researchers, managers of protected areas and representatives of protected area networks, which was held in St Pierre de Chartreuse (France, October, 2011). The following paragraphs will discuss the role of structures and processes of participation and the emergence of configurations of regional governance in the context of protected area development in view of the results mentioned above. These issues have gained relevancy in the current phase of protected area policies of the early twenty-first century and open up an array of important questions to be explored.

Grenzen – eine Einführung

Grenzen, Grenzziehungen und Grenzuberschreitungen sind eine dem Menschen zutiefst verinnerlichte Abstraktions- und Handlungspraxis. Eine Grenze ist eine gedachte oder abstrakte Linie, anhand welcher Unterscheidungen getroffen und Dinge durch Differenz identifiziert werden. Sie stellt die zentrale Voraussetzung fur die Erkenntnis dar, denn wie der Philosoph Konrad Paul Liessmann formuliert hat, zieht jeder Versuch, Sinneseindrucke zu strukturieren und systematisieren, Grenzen.

Programmatik grenzüberschreitender Zusammenarbeit und hochschuldidaktische Handlungsfelder im österreichisch-tschechischen Grenzraum: eine Projektreflexion

Der vorliegende Beitrag ist im Spannungsfeld der Persistenz und Transformation von Grenze im osterreichisch-tschechischen Grenzraum angesiedelt. Er handelt zum einen von der europa- und regionalpolitischen Tradition und Programmatik grenzuberschreitender Handlungsfelder. Zum anderen stehen Intention, Ablauf, Methodik und Ergebnisse eines konkreten Projektes, das als hochschuldidaktisches Experiment beiderseits der Staatsgrenze durchgefuhrt wurde, im Fokus. Empirisches Untersuchungsgebiet ist die sudmahrisch-niederosterreichische landliche Peripherie. Im Anschluss an die skizzenhafte Diskussion von Tradition und Programmatik der bilateralen grenzuberschreitenden Zusammenarbeit werden Ziele und Methoden des Projektes erortert, um dann hinsichtlich daraus gewonnener zentraler Erkenntnisse auf Voraussetzungen fur grenzuberschreitende Kooperationen uberzuleiten. Die Erfahrungen aus dem hochschuldidaktischen Projekt – einer Kooperation zwischen der Universitat Wien sowie den Universitaten Masaryk und Mendel in Brno im Rahmen der „Aktion Osterreich-Tschechische Republik“ – zeigen, dass partnerschaftliche Kooperationsformen auf symbolischer, institutioneller und wirtschaftspolitischer Ebene mit einen Beitrag zur Transformation von Grenzraumen zu leisten imstande sind.

Regional Development Between Cohesion and Competition – Current Theses and Fields of Action

Abstract This contribution discusses regional development drawing on the EU member state Austria as an example. The crosscutting theme is illustrated from initial positioning through to relevant fields of action. In doing so, the way forward is seen as a process and those who accompany it are seen as the ones responsible for its implementation. Responsibilities are identified along theses. These are formed in the context of demographic change, mobility, energy, regional public services, residential development, cooperation and governance processes. Fields of action are discussed in accordance with the developed theses.

Védett területek mint a határon átnyúló együttműködés tényezői? Reflexiók az osztrák–magyar határ mentén lebonyolított ETE-projekt tapasztalatai alapján

Transboundary Protected Areas can offer a bunch of opportunities for regional development in border regions. The range of possibilities reaches from measures of environmental protection to projects of local development and sustainability or even issues of attitudes and strategies for action aimed at neighbourhoods. From the experts’ point of view and according to current scholarly discourse they are considered to be promising and fruitful instruments of cross border cooperation.With respect to national border regions, borders fulfil the functions of division, separation and connection. In the context of historical and political developments in the past decades, border regions – as the one along the Austro-Hungarian border – are interpreted as points of articulation due to the creative linkages between divided spaces that they have traditionally established. Linkages emphasise commonalities. A linkage provides access to a separated area, which can thus be entered or exited, providing opportunities for communication and exchange. The border areas of the case study which is analysed in this paper have also gradually come to be considered as spaces relatively open to at least some sort of new forms of use.The Austro-Hungarian border region of Irottkő–Geschriebenstein, the easternmost transboundary segment of the Alpine area, represents such a potential space that has been designated for rapprochement in the context of regional policies of the European Union. Large scale protected areas like national parks, biosphere reserves and in particular nature parks, constitute suitable projects for cross border cooperation, especially if both sides of the border have already signaled their willingness to cooperate in principle.The analysis in this article is mainly about a discussion of expectations and claims that those kinds of protected areas tend to prompt in the region. What are some of the unique aspects of transborder protected areas and which principles come into play and need to be taken into consideration in bilateral co-operations? The further analysis of the case study Irottkő- Geschriebenstein Nature Park is based on discussions around this topic held at the international level and complemented by a commentary on the results of a project carried out in this nature park within the framework of EU-regional policies. Its acronym “IGEN – Innovativ – Grenzuberschreitend – Einheitlich – Nachhaltig” (innovative – transboundary – unified – sustainable) clearly reflects its contents and components.The case of this Transborder Protected Area at the interface of two contrary political systems serves to illustrate the following points: Firstly, how cross border cooperation and regional development progress in the context of regional governance as the policy principle. Secondly, which prerequisites need to be met in order to manage cooperation in cross border contexts by means of large-scale protected areas.