Biodiversity in Austria

Approximately 67,000 species in total occur in Austria, including around 45,000 animal species (among them approximately 93 mammal species and around 37,150 insect species) as well as 3,000 fern and flowering plant species. According to estimates, the European continent is home to around 200,000 animal and plant species in total.

According to Red Lists, 27 percent of mammals, 27 percent of birds, and 60 percent of reptiles and amphibians in Austria are endangered. Among ferns and flowering plants, around 33 percent are endangered. The Red List of endangered biotopes shows the threat to habitats. Fifty-seven percent of the total 93 forest biotope types are classified as endangered. Among grassland biotope types, 90 percent of the 61 types occurring in Austria are assigned to a threat category.

The situation in Austria is comparable to that in all other countries of the European Union (EU). The EU has lost more than half of its wetlands; more than 40 percent of mammals, 25 percent of birds, 45 percent of butterflies, 30 percent of amphibians, and more than half of freshwater fish are threatened.

Species and habitat diversity in Austria is under strong pressure. Causes of biodiversity loss include land use (soil sealing) as a result of increasing population density, industrialization, and infrastructure facilities (for example roads), fragmentation and destruction of habitats, climate change, and also light emissions.

National Biodiversity Strategy

As a Party to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Austria is obliged to establish a national strategy for implementing the Convention. In 1998, the first strategy was adopted by the National Biodiversity Commission and submitted to the Council of Ministers for information. Key principles are to ensure the integration of biodiversity conservation into all relevant policy areas and a coordinated approach to nature and species conservation. In 2005, the strategy was updated and further developed. The strategy contains objectives and measures covering all relevant policy areas related to biodiversity conservation: nature and species conservation, agriculture and forestry, industry, transport, tourism, development cooperation, etc.

To the National Biodiversity Strategy (in German only)

In February 2026, the 7th National Report on the national implementation of the provisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was submitted in this context.

EU Biodiversity Strategy

The goal of the new EU Biodiversity Strategy presented by the European Commission on May 3, 2011, is to improve the state of biodiversity in Europe within the next ten years and to protect diversity. Based on the objective and vision adopted by the Council of the European Union in March 2011—to curb biodiversity loss in the EU by 2020 and to protect, enhance, and restore ecosystem services by 2050—six main targets for biodiversity conservation were defined.

These six targets

• are aimed at combating the main causes of biodiversity loss,
• are intended to help reduce threats to biodiversity, and
• promote the integration of biodiversity targets into important policy areas.

The six main targets relate to

• the full implementation of existing EU nature conservation legislation and the Natura 2000 network of protected areas,
• the improvement and restoration of ecosystems and ecosystem services, particularly through increased use of green infrastructure,
• ensuring the sustainability of agricultural and forestry activities,
• the conservation and protection of fish stocks in the EU,
• combating invasive species, and
• strengthening the EU’s contribution to combating global biodiversity loss.

Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

As a successor to the Aichi Targets, which expired in 2020, the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (KM-GBF) was adopted at COP15 in 2022 in Montreal, Canada. The framework contains targets to be achieved by 2050, with the aim of realizing the global vision of a world living in harmony with nature, as well as the 2030 mission to “[…] halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity […]”. Further decisions concerned a plan to safeguard the rights of Indigenous Peoples and their contributions to nature conservation, as well as financing for biodiversity.