Internationally recognized criteria

A national park is an instrument used world-wide for the long-term preservation of unique natural areas and, with them, the animal and plants habitats they support. It is a protected area that is managed mainly for ecosystem protection and for recreational use.

A national park is a natural area of land and/or sea designed to:

1. Protect the ecological integrity of one or more ecosystems for present and future generations;
2. Exclude exploitation
3. Provide a foundation for spiritual, scientific, educational, recreational and visitor opportunities  

The National Park Lake Neusiedl

The National Park Lake Neusiedl–Seewinkel was founded in 1993. It is one of the most important and diversified avian reservations in Europe. In 2001 the Lake Neusiedl region was declared a UNESCO World Heritage System and joins another 850 cultural and natural monuments around the world. The Lake Neusiedl is a biological borderland. Where one can find flora and fauna from Alpine, Pannonian, Asian, Mediterranean and Nordic regions. There are marshland, dry glassland, oak forests, sand steppe, pasture land, meadows and salty areas next to each other and 300 species of different birds.  

Extent and Position

The Natural Park Lake Neusiedl – Seewinkel, where about 100 km² belongs to Austria and the other 200km² belongs to Hungary, is one of the most fascinating natural habitats in Europe. The lake itself is situated on the lowest point of the Hungarian lowlands and does not have a runoff. It includes about an area of 320km², 180 of it as reed belt. 

Land management

As in the majority of national parks in Europe, many features of cultivated areas also constitute some of the habitats that are particularly worthy of protection. Even on the watery expanses of the salt pools and in the distinctive salt soils, human beings have left behind their marks over time: the clearing of woods, progressive drainage, extensive use of the land through haymaking and, in particular, through pasturage.

Land management in the Conservation Zone of the National Park targets the preservation and improvement of biotope quality in cultivated areas. The most important instrument are:

• Haymaking
• Rees harvesting
• Pasturage of grey cattle, water buffaloes, Przewlski horses and white donkeys
• Pasturage of spotted cattle
• Cultivation of field with organic farming
• Damming of surface water

Visitor management

• All human use in the Nature Reserve Zone in prohibited. Access to meadowlands, salt pools and reed beds is prohibited.
• Special exceptions are not granted, neither for professional photographers nor for students or scientists.
• Visitor management has made access roads, which can be used as walking and bike paths.
• These access roads and agriculture tracks are closed for traffic.
• The Information Centre in Illmitz plays a major role in visitor preparation.
• There are viewing platforms located in many places next to the path.
• Informational displays offer details to the area.

Research

Cornerstones of research in the Nature Reserve Zones are long-term scientific research, monitoring and enough collection of evidence. The basis of management plans is created by findings of this research.Already in the past, in 1990, the main focus of the research was aimed toward management within a national park structure. It was coordinated by the “Arbeitsgemeinschaft Gesamtkonzept Neusiedler See” and funded from state and federal budgets.

Here are some of the research projects which have been completed or are still in process:

• Study of Neusiedler See fish biology and considerations on resource management
• Study of ecology, distribution and economic value of hunted game species in the “Seewinkel” area
• Effects of agriculture and tourism
• Conservation activities in the National Park: Pasturage and its alternatives
• Study of population ecology invertebrates and bird species in the reed belt
• Analysis of sandpiper data from the “Seewinkel” area
• The importance of the reed belt habitat for fish species of the “Neusiedler See”