Green bridges and wildlife corridors in Austria

Abstract

Landscapes and landscape structures that enable the exchange, dispersal and migration of big forest-favouring game species are resources which densly populated Europe is running short of. Two projects in Austria provide information that is needed for the management of this ressource. “Efficient green bridge insertion in Austria” is a project which lead to a concept of green bridges for the Austrian network of motorways. By evaluating existing passageways wider than 30 m and their suitability for wildlife and further by gathering information about the most important migration routes for red deer, moose and large carnivores the permeability of the network of motorways was investigated. An interdisciplinary project in Austria, titled “Wildlife corridors”, examined the applicability of remote sensing methods and terrestrial surveys to identify corridor structures at different landscape scales. With the collected data and information from aerial / satellite images and terrestrial surveys a resistance model for the investigation area and the indicator species red deer and wild boar could be developed. The most probable migration route between the floodplains of the Danube and the floodplains of the Leitha was detected. Both projects reveal explicit measurements of “resource management”, which ensure genetic exchange on the long term. They are a contribution to sustainable wildlife management in Austria and the border areas. Besides the improvement and implementation of the gained data, the integration of our results in instruments of regional planning and landsape planning are the most important next steps. Only thereby the ressource wildlife corridor can be taken into consideration in planning processes and strategies at different scales.