Villach criticizes WWF

Soil sealing ranking: “Distorted reality”

Head of Draustadt Günther Albel criticizes the WWF ranking.(Bild: Uta Rojsek-Wiedergut)

The latest WWF ranking on soil sealing in Austria is currently causing great displeasure in the town hall of the Drau town. The mayor speaks of a completely distorted reality.

The WWF compiled a top 15 list in its sealing rate ranking of Austrian cities, with Villach (as reported) coming in third worst. Which infuriates the head of the Drau town. "The arbitrary restriction to 15 cities massively distorts reality. If the WWF had correctly used all 87 cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants as a basis for evaluation, Villach would be in the top third," says Mayor Günther Albel.

If you want to compare municipalities and cities, you also have to differentiate between federal and provincial sealing. This is the only way to show the level of sealing for which municipalities are actually responsible.

so Villachs Bürgermeister Günther Albel

For him, such number games are counterproductive for the important issue of soil protection. The WWF must accept the accusation of misleading. In general, it is "childish and nonsensical" to blame soil sealing on the municipalities. This is because Villach, an internationally important transport hub with three freeways and two railroad stations in the city area, shows how strongly federal decisions can influence soil sealing throughout Austria.

"Infrastructure has brought prosperity to Carinthia"
"Of all the cities, Villach has the second-highest traffic sealing through no fault of its own, so to speak. However, the decisions to build railroads and highways were made in Vienna - in some cases 150 years ago - and not in Villach," clarifies Albel. He also points out: "These infrastructure measures have brought prosperity to Carinthia. And that cannot and must not be demonized now!"

The fact that this ranking was published on the very day of the Green Party's election campaign kick-off is probably no coincidence - at least that's what the Villach town hall suspects.