More than a hundred years ago, when the organisation of the Friends of Nature was founded in Vienna in 1895, the first programmes they offered were trips and excursions to the Alps. Meanwhile the organization has grown into an international movement with over 600,000 members; almost 1,000 houses and mountain huts were built, thousands of kilometres of hiking and mountain paths are being maintained, excursions and courses are organised and projects for landscape protection and for the promotion of sustainable development are launched and implemented. Every two years, a European Transborder region, which is of ecological value and worthy of protection is proclaimed "Landscape of the Year". In such "Landscapes of the Year", educational activities are organised, project groups are set up, campaigns are mounted and projects put into practice in the interest of sustainable development. The emphasis is on processes designed to further sustainable economic development in the given region, which are to be launched in cooperation with the greatest possible number of interested groups of the population.
