Transboundary Protected Areas als Instrument grenzüberschreitender Zusammenarbeit? Der Fall des Naturparks Írottkő-Geschriebenstein

Transboundary Protected Areas (TBPA) represent a potential strategy for sustainable cross-border development. Experts consider them to be versatile tools for cross-border co-operation in the areas of environmental protection and peace building. Against the backdrop of public planning of these protected areascapes, the chapter will analyse the case of a TBPA nature park located alongside the Austro-Hungarian border. Írottko″-Geschriebenstein Nature Park will serve as a model for discussing the framework conditions necessary for protected areas to play a role in cross-border co-operation at the interface of different political systems. Which mechanisms need to be considered for TBPA to act as stimuli or even models of regional development based on regional governance? Despite common ideas and statements in support of the cross-border nature park on the part of both Austria and Hungary, numerous barriers to co-operation seem to persist. From an analytical standpoint, trust, legal frameworks and jurisdictions, weak transfer links and bureaucracy, in addition to different manifestations of responsibilities as a civil society constitute those fields of action that are partly superimposed on the matters of content and need to be addressed on a deeper level in cross-border co-operation.