Jobs for Styria’s Natural Park Areas (Arbeitsplätze für steirische Naturparkregionen)
The creation of viable jobs and the prevention of a rural exodus are of increasing importance for the future of rural areas. In 1999 the Austrian Association of Natural Parks (Verband der Naturparke Österreichs) reacted to the situation by launching a model job-creation scheme in collaboration with the Austrian AMS employment service and the Styrian regional authority. The goal of the project is the creation of jobs in Styria’s natural park areas.
Project executive
Austrian Association of Natural Parks and Steirische Wissenschafts-, Umwelt- und KulturOrganisation GmbH. (ST:WUK) plus Styria’s six natural parks, namely Grebenzen, Sölktäler, Pöllauer Tal, Südsteirisches Weinland, Mürzer Oberland and Eisenwurzen.
Participants
The project is co-ordinated by the Austrian Association of Natural Parks in co-operation with the Styrian regional authority’s nature protection department. All six Styrian natural park areas are involved in the project. The other project partners are the Grebenzen Natural Park Tourist Office , Burg-Verein Steinschloss and Verein Novum Forum (two associations at the Grebenzen Natural Park), and the Styrian Natural Park Academy.
Objectives
The project has the following social and labour market objectives: creation of new and innovative employment opportunities in rural areas, maintaining existing levels of employment in retail, tourism, agriculture and the trades, reducing the unemployment rate, and training personnel for natural park work. Plus implementation of additional projects in line with the natural park philosophy in Austria, namely an equal focus on and co-ordination of the goals of protection, recreation, education and regional development. The ecological objectives include preservation of the structural diversity of the landscape and maintenance of the high level of biodiversity in Styria’s natural parks through a policy of active nature protection.
Activities
Jobs for Styria’s Natural Park Areas is a non-profit employment project with an emphasis on the re-integration of the long-term unemployed in the labour market. Work in the natural parks is very varied and includes such aspects as support for individual projects, landscape management work, general administrative duties and public relations. Great importance is attached to hands-on training for new recruits to natural park posts, and continuous education is also taken very seriously, so that employees can acquire qualifications that will be useful in the future. It is even possible to undertake vocational training while working at a natural park, and for some years the Austrian Association of Natural Parks and the Styrian Continuous Education Institute (LFI) have offered courses for Certified Nature and Landscape Guides.
Results
One result of the project is a greater degree of professionalism in the Styrian natural parks, which is needed to do justice to the growing demands of sustainable development in these areas. By the end of June 2005, 81 people had been involved in the project in a variety of functions for a maximum of one year. Thanks to them numerous ideas and initiatives have now been put into practice. In the Pöllauer Tal Natural Park, for example, a plan was developed to hold an exhibition of the results of a 3-year biodiversity research programme. It was the contribution of the project personnel that made it possible to give the general public access to this “Wonderful Worlds” exhibition. About two-thirds of the 62 persons who have now completed a period of service with the project have since been reintegrated in the labour market, and more than half of them have found permanent jobs in their respective natural parks.
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