The Gesäuse National Park is Austria’s most recently established national park. The decision of principle to create this national park was unanimously taken by the provincial government of Styria in 1997. One year later, NGOs from Styria and Austria, among them Naturefriends Austria, decided to act in concert and signed the “Johnsbach declaration”. Such a closing of ranks was an important milestone on the way to the establishment of the national park. On 12 March 2002, the national park law was passed in the Landtag. In 2003, the Gesäuse National Park was internationally declared a Category II Protected Area by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

On behalf of Naturefriends, the former chairman of Naturefriends Styria, Karl Hödl, was responsible for championing the cause of the national park foundation. From 1998 to the beginning of 2003, he worked for the association “Verein Nationalpark Gesäuse”. He was intensively involved on the ground and worked for sound educational foundations about the national park in order to dispel existing rumours, such as that the free right of way was to be fully restricted. Heinz Fischer, former Naturefriends president, also heavily promoted the national park.