As part of the Horizon Europe RIA project “Bio-Capital” we support a case study on the protection, restoration, adaptation, and sustainable use of Alpine forests in Austria, including the identification of a potential OECM in Carinthia in line with IUCN guidelines. The work is grounded in key EU policy frameworks: the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 sets ambitious targets to expand protected and strictly protected areas and underscores the importance of sustainably managed, biodiversity-friendly forests, while the EU Forest Strategy for 2030 reinforces this direction by defining closer-to-nature forest management as a suite of practices that promote biodiversity-friendly and adaptive forestry and demonstrate its benefits. In parallel, the expanded Regulation on European environmental economic accounts introduces forest and ecosystem accounts—based on the UN SEEA-EA—providing the legal foundation for consistent Natural Capital Accounting to measure and value changes in ecosystem stocks and conditions; at the same time, it acknowledges the methodological complexity of biodiversity metrics and the challenges of integrating them into financial decision-making, especially for public goods. This policy grounding also builds on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which informs the overarching direction of the case study. We are supporting the developing process of an integrated framework that brings together geospatial data, monitoring, and natural capital accounting, supported by feasibility analysis and the development of management and governance concepts for a potential OECM designation. The UNESCO Chair at Carinthia University of Applied Sciences provides scientific consultancy, methodological supervision, and ongoing project support.

Project duration: April 2026 – März 2027 
Financed: Auftragsforschung JSC One