Challenges of Cross-Border Cooperation: The Initiative of Trilateral Goričko–Raab–Őrség Nature Park

Abstract

The trajectories of social actions comprising nature conservation and regional economic development in the Slovenian-Austrian-Hungarian tri-border area discussed in this paper are closely linked to the landscape of the Slovenian-Austrian-Hungarian border. Processual understanding bounds landscape to human activities and other non-human agents, all of whom constitute the landscape-in-the-making. The Őrség National Park and Goričko Landscape Park, as designated nature reserves, are subject to human influences through their protection and, as intrinsically objects of human agency, are rich sites of social production and interaction. The cross-border initiative of the Trilateral Goričko–Raab–Őrség Nature Park is analyzed through the politics of European integration and territorial cooperation in the peripheral regions and their financial programs. Through field research and interviews with social actors, the complexity of the obstacles that hinder the functioning and effective management of the actions of the proposed Trilateral Nature Park initiative and the ambivalent attitude of the inhabitants towards the actions of the three parks is observed.