WWF sounds the alarm

Styria: Land consumption still far too high

Simon Pories is soil protection spokesman for the WWF.

(Bild: WWF-Oesterreich)

Land consumption in Styria is growing much faster than the population. The WWF is sounding the alarm and calling for urgent reforms from the new Styrian state government. But this is doubtful.

According to a recent WWF analysis, the amount of land used and sealed in Styria has increased by eleven percent over the past ten years (2014 to 2023), while the population has only grown by four percent in the same period. "For decades, state policy has allowed settlement areas to continue to expand, industrial parks to be built on greenfield sites and chalet villages to spring up," says WWF soil protection spokesperson Simon Pories. He is particularly critical of the "Alpenpark Turracher Höhe" chalet village, which has destroyed valuable natural areas. 

The new government is therefore calling for stricter and binding rules in the Spatial Planning Act and stricter settlement boundaries. Loopholes must be plugged and exceptions (such as "infill areas", which allow building on grassland) abolished. Road construction is particularly criticized - but the FPÖ and ÖVP want to push this forward again. Keywords: B68, B70, A9 south of Graz.

Many environmentalists are against the construction of the S7 (Fürstenfeld expressway).

(Bild: Christoph Wisser)

Building development is not the same as sealing
Many different data and terms are used in the debate about soil consumption. According to the WWF, the analysis was carried out using the "standard calculation method of the Federal Environment Agency", which uses data from the Federal Office of Metrology and Surveying.

The Federal Environment Agency defines soil consumption as the loss of biologically productive soils due to construction for settlement and transportation purposes, but also for intensive recreational uses, landfills, mining areas, industrial plants and similar intensive uses. Around half of the soil used is also sealed, i.e. covered with a layer that is impermeable to water and air.