Protected Forests in Austria
We buy ecologically valuable forest plots and give them back to nature for the long term. You help fund them, from one square metre.
Almost half of Austria is forest. Hardly any of it is old.
A forest needs centuries to become what a forest can be. With fallen trunks, hollow trees, gaps where light gets in. Most forests here never get that far.
How old a forest is allowed to get
Then it is harvested and started again. The old phases are almost completely missing.
A full cycle with decay and regeneration. The late phases make up more than half of it there.
Source: WWF Austria, Fachwissen Totholz
The forest as it usually is
More than half of the trees here are spruces, often planted in rows and harvested after a good hundred years. A forest managed like this stays young. What is missing are the old trees, the standing and lying deadwood, the gaps and the quiet.
What depends on old wood
A large part of life in the forest depends on exactly that. Beetles that only live in rotten wood. Woodpeckers that carve out holes, later taken over by bats and owls. Fungi that break down a trunk over decades. Up to a third of all forest species rely on deadwood. In a managed forest little of it is left, in a forest left alone there is up to ten times as much.
What we do about it
That is why we buy land and leave it alone. Existing forest can grow old, clear-cut land gets a start. Planting is something we can do. Only those who own the forest can let it grow old.
You can't plant old forests. You can only leave them standing.
Existing forest or clear-cut land
We assess forest plots that are worth leaving alone for the long term. After the purchase, the only things that happen there are things that help nature.
We make it possible forcompaniesto protect nature.
Private donors, hotels and companies fund square metres of the same plot. Every contribution is assigned to it, from one square metre.
Every plot has a place
On the map you see where the plot is, how big it is and what grows there. The square metres you fund are assigned to it and carry your name.
Location
Coordinates and municipality, marked on the map.
Size
Total area, assigned and available square metres.
Woodland
Tree species, age and condition, plus photos from the ground.
Report
What is happening on the plot, with photos and date.
Square metres to protect
From one square metre. The amount goes towards buying the plot you chose on the map.
Plot 15, Tyrol
10 × €X
Funding starts as soon as the first plot has been checked.
How it works
Choose a plot
On the map you see which plots we are currently buying, with location, size and woodland.
Fund square metres
From one square metre, one-off. You get the certificate and access to the dashboard straight away.
The land stays
As soon as the plot is funded, we buy it. After that, the only things that happen there are things that help nature, and we report on what is going on.
What you see afterwards
Every contribution gets a dashboard. That is where you find the plot with map, photos, reports and the certificate.
Your dashboard
The square metres you fund, the plot they belong to, the funding status and everything we report from the plot. The certificate is there as a PDF, in someone else's name if you like.
View dashboard
Planting trees, the second way
Where no forest is left, we start again. At our planting days in spring and autumn you plant yourself, or we plant for you. Every tree stands in Austria, every planting comes with location and photos.
Plant treesQuestions
A piece of forest that can grow old
From one square metre, with your name on it, on a plot in Austria.