In 2002, the Jauerling-Wachau Nature Park, which had been active since the seventies and which covers almost a quarter of the Wachau World Heritage site, was on the brink of collapse after the former sponsor organisation went bankrupt. In the last 15 years, the nature park was carefully rebuilt from this bankrupt estate and redeveloped in line with modern nature park strategies. For several years now, the nature park has been standing on its own two feet again and is now one of the most active and modern nature parks in Lower Austria. At present, there is a significant focus on sustainably constructing a nature education programme throughout the nature park area.

 “In particular, the sustainable design of the nature education programme, as well the solid grounding of the entire project as a regional development measurement is noteworthy.” 

Despite its size, which forms a quarter of the entire area of the World Heritage site, Jauerling Nature Park has been given too little attention for too long. A successful leadership project has once again created a solid basis for the management and funding of the nature park, and as a consequence, it has become the most important image for 7 highly-agricultural communities surrounding the famous World Heritage site Wachau.”