Ever since the foundation of Naturefriends, protecting the environment has been a key concern. Amongst other things, Naturefriends fiercely fought against the Warscheneck linked ski area project in Upper Austria. Sepp Friedhuber was in the front line, standing up against the project in every local discussion, and never giving up protecting this beautiful spot of nature together with representatives of other Alpine associations and environmental organisations. It was a hard fight, often offending on the part of the project supporters. A tunnel variant, or a cable car across the Warscheneck – a total of 17 variants (!), all of them highly contentious, were under discussion. Eventually, in April 2017, a legal opinion was presented which opposed the project and put an end to the planned destruction of nature.

In November 2017, Naturefriends, the Alpine Association, and WWF joined forces and formed the “Allianz für die Seele der Alpen” (Alliance for the Soul of the Alps) to fight for the protection of the last pristine Alpine areas. Since 2019, fighting against the plans to build a ski resort in the glacier area of Pitztal-Ötztal has taken centre-stage – the planned project, using an area of 64 ha (!), would irretrievably destroy a pristine high-mountain region and result in the irreversible loss of numerous habitats. It is vital to preserve the remains of this pristine landscape, particularly in our current times of global warming and glacier shrinkage!