World Heritage Volunteers Wachau-Middle Rhine

Volunteers tend to the rocky slope in the meditation garden of the Aggsbach Charterhouse © Welterbegemeinden Wachau/Elisa Besenbäck
Volunteers tend to the rocky slope in the meditation garden of the Aggsbach Charterhouse © Welterbegemeinden Wachau/Elisa Besenbäck

Since 2004, an intensive exchange has been taking place between the two World Heritage cultural landscapes of the Wachau in Austria and the Upper Middle Rhine Valley in Germany. The cooperation should now be further intensified by a joint volunteer camp with a focus on caring for the cultural landscape.

Volunteer camps aimed at caring for the landscape having been taking place in the Wachau since 2010, and in recent years together with the Thayatal and Donau-Auen National Parks. Since 2014, volunteer camps based on the experiences in the Wachau have also been held in the Middle Rhine Valley. A joint camp in both the Wachau and the Middle Rhine Valley is now planned for the period 2018-2020. Participants from both regions, together with young people from around the world, will spend one week each in Austria and in Germany working on preserving the unique landscapes. For the Wachau, this additional volunteer camp is a bonus not only because caring for areas of importance for nature conservation is on the programme but also because the preservation of the cultural landscape plays a role as well.

An additional aspect is the documentation of the camps. The volunteers are kitted out with cameras and should document their activity for the region and the region itself from their personal point of view. The films will be published on a YouTube channel.

Discussed in the project selection committee: 18.12.2017
Project promoter: association Welterbegemeinden Wachau (World Heritage Municipalities Wachau)
Funding level: 80%
Project duration: 2018-2020
Supported by the federal government, the federal province and the European Union (LEADER).