Cooperation
Since the very beginning of their founding, the two national parks Thayatal and Podyjí have been aligning their actions in coordinated management plans. The current plan envisages the following key points to further strengthen cooperation and to act as a common protected area of European importance.
The secret to good cooperation is communication between the staff of the two national park administrations. That's why Austrian and Czech employees swap jobs once a year. Over several days, they work in each other's administration and, in doing so, delve deeper into the internal processes and procedures of their neighbour. Furthermore, the new management plan provides for staff days where the entire staff of both administrations can meet and exchange ideas. Language training opportunities and officers explicitly responsible for cross-border communication complete the cooperative exchange.
Exchanging scientific data and a joint conception of conservation measures are basic prerequisites for the success of natural area management. That's why they are working on implementing a joint research strategy at the moment. There are to be common standards and survey methods for these, and existing data will also be networked and collected in an internal database accessible to both national parks.
In order to further improve the natural environment, the two national parks coordinate in the fight against invasive species in particular and in reducing the negative impacts of the Vranov power plant on the river ecology. To this end, for example, two cross-border spawning grounds have been created on the Thaya, unification of fishing regulations is planned and there are plans to improve the gravel situation in the Thaya.
A wide range of activities and services bring visitors ever closer to each other's national parks. These include additional joint events, two new looping hiking trails that facilitate discoveries on both sides of the Thaya, as well as bilingual signage and visitor information. In addition, cooperation with the partner schools, which is to be given a more international character, will be strengthened even more. For this purpose, there is an exchange with the cross-border national parks Bavarian Forest/Šumava and Saxon/Bohemian Switzerland.
