WWF Austria

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WWF Austria
logo
legal form society
founding 1963
Seat Vienna ( ⊙ coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 48.8 ″  N , 16 ° 19 ′ 23.7 ″  E )
purpose natural reserve
Chair Johanna Mang
(Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board )
Managing directors Andrea Johanides
sales 10.7 million euros (2014)
Employees 90
Members 9,970
Website www.wwf.at

The WWF Austria (complete: environmental organization WWF Austria ) is a non-profit association based in Vienna - Ottakring , the 1963 national section of the World Wide Fund For Nature was founded. Its purpose is to promote the efforts of the WWF in the interests of Austrian and international nature conservation . The central goals are to preserve the biological diversity of the earth, to promote the nature-friendly use of renewable resources and to prevent environmental pollution and waste of natural resources. The association is a member of the Environmental Alliance Austria and the ÖKOBÜRO - Alliance of the Environmental Movement. One of his best-known projects is the establishment of the Neusiedler See-Seewinkel National Park, for example .

history

Aerial photo of the Donau-Auen National Park (2013)

The reason for the establishment of WWF Austria in 1963 was primarily to protect the Langen Lacke , the largest of 40 salty lakes in Seewinkel in Burgenland , as well as the surrounding Puszta area . The area was considered a reserve for various bird species and was threatened by the plan to make it usable for agriculture. To prevent this, a club should represent the interests of its opponents. Based on the model of WWF Switzerland , Luc Hoffmann and other colleagues such as Antal Festetics initiated the organization, whose first president was Manfred Mautner Markhof junior . The position of managing director was taken over by Hans Feindl, who was primarily supposed to recruit new members, while Luc Hoffmann supported the association on an international level. A major donation to WWF Austria became known on the occasion of a visit by Prince Philip to the Vienna Opera Ball .

In 1970 the purchase of 1,200 hectares of Marchauen attracted greater attention. WWF Austria paid a total of 12 million schillings for this and established the WWF Marchegg nature reserve , which is still home to a large colony of storks . In the next few years, the association also acquired 50% of the nature reserve on Hundsheimer Berg, which is around one and a half square kilometers. The other half is owned by the Hundsheim community , the protected area is used for excursions by the University of Vienna, for example . At the end of 1982, WWF Austria initiated a campaign against the planned construction of a hydropower plant on the Danube near Hainburg in Lower Austria under the motto “Save the Au” . This led to a broad public debate about the consequences for the environment and finally to the occupation of the Hainburger Au . WWF Austria later obtained a ruling from the Supreme Court , which observers classified as the cornerstone for the establishment of the Donau-Auen National Park .

In June 1989 WWF Austria started to settle brown bears in Austrian forests, initially in the region around the Ötscher in Lower Austria . The last bear was killed there in 1842. After the project received a positive assessment in the first few years, criticism arose from the mid-1990s. WWF Austria countered this with an awareness-raising campaign, for which the equivalent of almost two million German marks was spent. By the end of 2002, the number of brown bears resettled by the WWF rose to 25 to 30 animals, making them one of the largest resettled populations in the European Union . In 2007 it was finally announced that the animals had meanwhile disappeared. Observers speculated that the bears were being hunted illegally, natural causes and migration were largely ruled out. WWF Austria then announced that it would campaign for resettlement , which, however, met with broad criticism in the countries.

In 2007, the environmental association started the "WWF Climate Group". As part of this initiative, Austrian companies undertook to reduce their CO 2 emissions by 15% within three years. The company IKEA was won as the first partner for the project , which then, for example, converted part of its vehicle fleet to alternative drives. In 2009, Telekom Austria joined the WWF Climate Group, later including Allianz , dm-drogerie markt , Erste Group , Fronius International , Hermann Pfanner Getränke and Spar . In 2017, the company network celebrated its 10th anniversary: ​​630,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions have been saved since it was founded, as the WWF writes in the corresponding annual report. This would correspond to the greenhouse gas emissions of the annual electricity consumption of all households in Styria. In December 2019, several Climate Group companies appealed to politicians to put an “ambitious, effective and environmentally friendly climate protection program at the center of future government work”.

Every two years the WWF publishes the Living Planet Report worldwide, which documents the human overexploitation of nature on the basis of scientific surveys. Together with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) , WWF Austria also developed a "Living Planet Index" for the Alpine republic for the first time in 2018. This index is based on around 880 data sets from the nine federal states for all vertebrate classes and shows that the domestic vertebrate populations are in a very poor condition. During the study period, there was an average decrease of 70 percent in the species examined. In response, WWF conservation experts called for more retreats and nature reserves. In addition, environmentally harmful subsidies must be stopped. At the same time, more research and monitoring are needed in order to be able to recognize negative trends at all. Because only 18 percent of the species protected under European law and only 44 percent of the habitats protected under European law according to the Habitats Directive would be examined in a uniform Austria-wide monitoring.

In order to get to the bottom of the extinction of species in the waters, WWF Austria, according to its own information, evaluated more than 500 data sets from federal state reports to the EU Commission in 2019. According to this, over 90 percent of the 62 assessed species do not have a favorable conservation status. The main reasons for this are river straightening, bank construction, hydropower and transverse structures as well as transport and traffic infrastructure, plus pollution from agricultural pesticide use and nutrient input. In response, the environmental protection organization demanded that politicians launch a clean-up offensive and stop harmful subsidies.

The WWF Austria is repeatedly involved against controversial large-scale projects in the Alpine region. One example of this is the controversial Pitztal-Ötztal glacier construction, for which, according to the project documents, a total of 750,000 cubic meters of rock, earth and ice would have to be excavated. The fact that a mountain ridge would even have to be removed by 120,000 cubic meters for a mountain station caused a particular stir. Together with other nature conservation organizations, the WWF therefore called for "the stop of the planned mega-project and legally binding expansion limits for ski areas and glacier protection without exceptions". The corresponding petition from a Tyrolean citizens' initiative was signed by over 150,000 people in 2019.

Finances

In the period from July 2018 to June 2019, WWF Austria generated income of 17.073 million euros. The largest part of this was earmarked and non-earmarked donations, which together made up 49%. Public funds were responsible for 27% of the revenue, which according to the annual report is exclusively earmarked project funds. 9% of the income came from business partnerships, 2% came from foundations, 5% from other WWF organizations, and 3% from membership fees. The use of funds item also amounted to 17.073 million euros. 43% of these supported international projects, 23% national projects, 14% were invested in fundraising, and administrative expenses were 5%. WWF Panda Ges.mbH , based in Vienna, is included in the balance sheet of the association , whose purpose is the "trade in toys, souvenirs and nature conservation products" under the WWF logo.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Bruno Streit: What is biodiversity? Exploration, protection and value of biological diversity. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-53617-5 .
  2. ↑ Annual Report 2014. (PDF) (No longer available online.) WWF Austria, archived from the original on April 2, 2015 ; accessed on March 25, 2015 (1.7 MB). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wwf.at
  3. ↑ Articles of Association and Structure. (JPG) WWF Austria, accessed on October 30, 2014 (1.3 MB).
  4. ^ Association statutes. WWF Austria, accessed on October 28, 2014 .
  5. ↑ WWF Austria: Active worldwide for nature conservation. Retrieved October 30, 2018 .
  6. ↑ WWF, Greenpeace, Global 2000 and other NGOs found alliance. In: The Standard. July 2, 2014, accessed October 30, 2014 .
  7. ^ Member organizations ÖKOBÜRO. Retrieved October 30, 2018 .
  8. ^ Austria press agency: WWF Austria fought for the Donauauen National Park . April 22, 2011 (“Chronicle of Austria”).
  9. ^ Dieter Pesendorfer: Paradigm shift in environmental policy . From the beginnings of an environmental policy to a sustainability policy. Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-15649-1 .
  10. ↑ a b WWF Austria: In the beginning there were the birds. ORF, December 23, 2013, accessed October 30, 2014 .
  11. ↑ Antal Festetics celebrates its 75th birthday. In: The Standard. July 10, 2012, accessed October 30, 2014 .
  12. ↑ a b c Imagine a teetotalers gathering from… In: Die Presse . June 30, 2012, p. 62 .
  13. ↑ Johannes Straubinger: Longing for nature . Greening thinking. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2009, p. 123 .
  14. ^ Friedrich Kasy: The butterfly fauna of the WWF nature reserve "Hundsheimer Berge" in Lower Austria. (PDF) In: Journal of the Association of Austrian Entomologists. 1983, accessed October 30, 2014 (4.7 MB).
  15. ↑ 1984/85: Hainburg - A power station building shakes the republic. (PDF) Retrieved October 30, 2014 (National Council: Debate on environmental protection, executive action, rule of law).
  16. ↑ Ingrid Monjencs, Herbert Rainer (Ed.): Hainburg - 5 years later . Counterpoint, Vienna 1989.
  17. ↑ WWF Austria: 50 years of commitment to the animal world. In: Salzburger Nachrichten. December 23, 2013, accessed October 27, 2014 .
  18. ↑ Inge Santner: WWF reintegrates Ursus arctos in Austria . A very strong program. In: Hamburger Abendblatt . July 5, 1999, p. 26 .
  19. ↑ The brown bear is native again in Austria . Environmental protection organization WWF resettled animals in the Alps - skepticism among the population. In: The world . August 5, 2003, p. 32 .
  20. ↑ Inge Santner: WWF experiment: Master Petz released into the wild successfully after initial problems . The bear has been going on in Austria for ten years. In: Berliner Morgenpost . July 4, 1999, p. 32 .
  21. ↑ Good year for Master Petz . In: Wiener Zeitung . December 19, 2002, p. 8 .
  22. ^ An advocate for Master Petz: Species protection in Austria . In: Courier . March 23, 2004, p. 12 .
  23. ↑ Rudolf Gruber: Illegal hunting for bears? In: The Bund . July 21, 2007, p. 40 (20 brown bears have mysteriously disappeared in the Austrian Eastern Alps. Environmentalists and police suspect illegal shooting.).
  24. ^ Rainer Nowak: The poor bears of the WWF . In: The press . August 6, 2008, p. 31 .
  25. ↑ Markus Rohrhofer, Gudrun Springer: As a bear you also die out twice . In: The Standard . August 13, 2008, p. 9 .
  26. ↑ WWF and Ikea found a climate platform . In: The Standard . August 31, 2007, p. 20 .
  27. ^ A b Thomas Pressberger: Ikea and the WWF start CO² initiative . Climate protection: WWF wants to motivate companies to take responsibility. In: WirtschaftsBlatt . September 6, 2007, p. 4 .
  28. ↑ Ikea feels ripe for climate protection . In: Salzburger Nachrichten . August 31, 2007, p. 14 .
  29. ↑ Telekom Austria reduced CO2 emissions by 40 percent in one year. In: Oekonews. June 26, 2010, accessed October 30, 2014 .
  30. ↑ Annual Report 2012. (No longer available online.) WWF Austria, p. 22 , archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on October 30, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wwf.at
  31. ↑ WWF Austria: About us. Retrieved October 30, 2018 .
  32. ↑ WWF Austria: Coalition: Companies call for an ambitious climate protection program. Retrieved December 10, 2019 .
  33. ↑ Overexploitation of nature accelerates the extinction of species - derStandard.at. Retrieved October 30, 2018 .
  34. ↑ WWF Report: Extinction of Species in Austria's Rivers and Lakes. Retrieved December 10, 2019 .
  35. ↑ WWF Austria: WWF Report: Species extinction in Austria's waters is man-made. Retrieved December 10, 2019 .
  36. ↑ WWF Austria: WWF: More than 150,000 people say no to the Pitztal-Ötztal glacier construction. Retrieved January 24, 2020 .
  37. ↑ Nindler Peter: Pitztal / Oetztal: Protest Against Glacier marriage. December 1, 2019, accessed January 24, 2020 .
  38. ↑ WWF Annual Report 2018/2019. WWF Austria, accessed on December 13, 2019 .
  39. ^ Commercial register of the Republic of Austria. Retrieved on October 31, 2014 (WWF Panda Ges.mbH, commercial register number 82220m).