The "Lafnitz Valley European Protected Area" includes two currently legally protected areas: The 70 hectare "Nature Reserve Lafnitz-Stögersbach Floodplains" in the cadastral community of Wolfau and the 31 hectare "Protected Landscape Part Lahnbach" near Deutsch Kaltenbrunn. Furthermore, the area includes the "Life Project Area Loipersdorf-Kitzladen."
The separated area parts are connected by the flow section of the Lafnitz (public water property). The European protected area covers a total area of 566.327 hectares. The Lafnitz is considered one of the last largely unregulated rivers in the lowlands throughout Austria. The free, unrestricted river course naturally interacts with accompanying floodplain forests and valley meadows, creating a variety of river morphological habitat structures through its unconstrained flow dynamics. These harbor the highest number of species from Annex II of the Habitats Directive, with representative populations and the most important river habitat types. The conservation status of the area varies. On the one hand, the area includes the unregulated, mostly freely meandering section up to Deutsch Kaltenbrunn; on the other hand, the "heavily" regulated flow section up to the state border. In particular, the rich occurrence of FFH-relevant fish species led to the inclusion of the lower section. Hydraulic engineering measures for optimal habitat design for fish fauna are the focus of an ongoing Life project in the area. Additionally, there are efforts to include the surrounding areas to enable a freer, more morphologically structured river course that is better connected to the surrounding landscape in the lower section of the Lafnitz.