The history of national parks in Austria, Germany and Switzerland reaches back to the late 19 th century. Based on a historic content analysis (ATLAS.ti), this study investigates the different conservation concepts through the example of tourism in charismatic parks in the Alps, such as Swiss National Park, Berchtesgaden National Park and Hohe Tauern National Park. A conception is considered a particular co-occurrence of protagonists, perceived threats, desired conservation goals and instruments applied. Analysing these co-occurrences sheds light on relations between historic milestones in nature conservation and the broader context of debates, changes and developments in society. Such an analysis reveals recurring archetypical conservation narratives and, in the context of tourism, allows identifying six different conceptions to better compare and understand the developments these parks have gone through: 1) fundamental antagonism, 2) selective antagonism, 3) opportunistic co-operation, 4) opportunistic appropriation, 5) co-operative development, and 6) integrative development. The parks' histories differ greatly, but nowadays the conception of integrative development appears to be generally acknowledged.

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Fallopia japonica as an invasive alien species in Europe and North America presents a significant problem to the existing flora as well as to infrastructures and agricultural land. That is why measures and attempts to control the plant are increasing rapidly. However, conservationists are not yet able to agree on the most suitable method. In the research project 'Game of Clones' , a team of scientists together with the help of high school students is spatially modeling the spreading behavior of knotweed under different circumstances and is creating and providing a board game as well as a computer simulation as an experimental platform. To develop sustainable assumptions to be able to model the responses of knotweed to each control measure, a vast understanding of the plant is necessary. The chapter covers the results of research activities and experiments within the project and gives a comprehensive review about Japanese knotweed.

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