Mission Statement

The Thayatal National Park has been awarded the Austrian Eco-label. The objectives of the educational work are set out in the mission statement for education.

Principles and objectives

The most important task of a national park is to protect and preserve a unique natural area that is left to itself and can develop without human intervention. The primary goal of the educational offers at the National Park is to enable schoolchildren, families, adults and other guests to get to know this unique natural landscape and to experience it in a way that is respectful of nature. In the process, visitors experience the fascination that emanates from natural, virtually untouched habitats and learn to appreciate how rare these kinds of landscapes are in the 21st century and as a place to experience nature, also for future generations. In this way, they can understand the value of nature and the need to treat it with respect and care.

National park rangers help guests to consciously grasp the complexity and beauty of untouched nature and sensitise them to it. They encourage visitors to use all their senses, to explore and ask questions. In order to fulfil this key role as a mediator between the national park administration and the guests to the outside world, the comprehensive training and further education as well as personal development of the employees is an important task for the education department. Expert knowledge and the ability to inspire enthusiasm for nature are equally important.

Aligning the content and values with the guiding principle of sustainable development

The educational work in the National Park includes

• inspiring a fascination and interest in nature and in natural habitats in particular,
• conveying ecological connections and basic biological knowledge about natural habitats, their representatives and their interactions,
• fostering a critical and reflective debate on the intrinsic value of nature ("wilderness idea") and the destructive use of natural resources by humans and strengthening the concept of sustainability (critical thinking and problem solving), publicising the idea of the national park and, through an intensive dialogue between the national park administration and the population, promoting understanding for the national park as well as the acceptance or integration of the national park in the region,
• communicating the global responsibility of the national park to conserve biodiversity as part of the Green Belt and a worldwide network of protected areas (future direction, global perspective),
• imparting knowledge about the natural, utilisation and cultural history of the landscape and the people of the National Park region (multi-perspectivity, transdisciplinarity),
• contributing to intercultural dialogue, especially through intensive cross-border cooperation with the neighbouring Národní park Podyjí,
• involving staff from all departments, the rangers as well as external interested parties in the design of the educational programme (participation, transdisciplinarity, internal open learning processes),
• addressing the different target groups in their living environment by choosing different teaching strategies and methods (variety of methods, relevance to everyday life),
• establishing partnerships with stakeholders to jointly benefit from the implementation and development of the protected area and the educational measures (participation)
• and cooperating with regional, national and international organisations to establish and, in particular, further develop their own work.

In order to guarantee a high level of quality in the field of education and to achieve continuous improvement, Thayatal National Park was certified ISO-9001 (internal open learning processes) in 2010 and with the Austrian Eco-label for educational institutions in 2016.

2020/09/22 Mission statement "Nature education & environmental training"