Right from the beginning, and in parallel to their fight for the free right of way, Naturefriends have been committed to the protection of the environment and, in 1910, enshrined the protection of the environment in their statutes as an official objective. In 1919, they were substantially involved in saving the Lainzer Tiergarten, a local recreation area at the outskirts of Vienna. 

In the aftermath of World War II, one key element of Naturefriends work was the fight for the establishment of national parks in the Hohe Tauern area, Lake Neusiedl, the Donauauen and the limestone Alps in Upper Austria, by means of which significant parts of the Austrian natural environment were protected from further exploitation.