Introduction ‘Nature needs protection and refuge areas where it can unfold without influence from the human hand’. This statement was made in 2012 - not by a classical deep ecologist - but by the CEO of the publicly owned company Österreichische Bundesforste (OeBf). This company is responsible for managing ten per cent of the national territory of Austria, including fifteen per cent of its woodlands and over one hundred lakes. This statement was not unexpected. It was made in connection with the presentation of a study entitled ‘Wilderness in Austria? Challenges for society, nature conservation and the management of areas of unspoiled nature in times of climate change’, co-launched with the World Wide Fund for Nature Austria (WWF Austria) in September 2012. This initiative is illustrative of a new type of collaboration in relation to wilderness protection in Austria, mainly addressing one specific wider type of ecosystem, namely forests, but also alpine moorlands which are managed by the OeBf. These moorlands and the only officially declared wilderness area of Austria, all of which are located in the Alpine Region, in conjunction with the specific legal aspects of forestry have already been covered in Chapter 9 of this book. This chapter instead focuses on the role of law in protecting wilderness in Austria in areas beyond alpine habitats. The analysis is grounded in an in-depth review of literature, relevant legal sources and legal databanks. Based on these sources, more detailed information has been collected with respect to a number of specific areas. After discussing the relevance of the wilderness concept in Austrian society (Section 2), attention is given to the definition of wilderness in an Austrian legal context (Section 3). The main body of this chapter addresses the relevance of Austrian law in protecting wilderness (Section 4). The extent to which this protection is also ensured in practice is discussed subsequently (Section 5). The final section includes some main conclusions and the author’s personal reflection on the future of wilderness protection in Austria (Section 6). © Cambridge University Press 2016.