That is the opening line of the pocket-sized brochure produced for the new educational trail through the glacier foreland in the Lötschental (Switzerland), but applies equally to the recently opened Wilde John educational walking trail in the Hohe Tauern National Park in Austria. Both trails are designed to educate visitors about changes in the landscape, both naturally occurring and those caused by human activity, with the information being conveyed in very different ways and targeting different age groups.

The "Wilde John " path is aimed at young visitors; it teaches through a tale the history of the ‘Johnsbach’. In this tale the mountain stream ‘Johnsbach’ is represented by the Giant John. Visitors follow the stream from its wild and untrammelled youth through being straightened out and tamed between 1950 and 1975, then returned to its natural course as part of a LIFE project and freed from its restraints. The various interactive stations along the course of the stream allow children for example to discover what John is thinking and also provide information about other story-based LIFE project venues in Austria.

The 23 information points on the thematic educational trail on climate and glacier areas explain how the glacier forelands around the Lang Glacier have developed and teach visitors about how glaciers shape the landscape. There are an accompanying free leaflet and booklet available. Each information station includes a QR code that can be used in conjunction with certain mobile phones to view the website which contains information about each station.

The walking trail therefore provides both scientific and recreational information. There are a number of routes to choose from: it takes around 5 hours to visit all 23 information stations. For summer 2011, the edition of a scientific book as well as some worksheets for secondary and high school classes are planned.

Link(s) :

• Lötschental PLUS
• Nationalpark Hohe Tauern 

 From 20th to 23rd September 2010 an international exchange meeting between experts on ecological connectivity from the Alps and the Carpathians was held in Mikulov (CZ). This meeting was organised in the frame of the Memorandum of Cooperation signed in 2008 between the Convention on biological diversity (CBD), the Alpine and the Carpathian Convention.

During these packed but nevertheless very convivial days, the participants had the occasion to visit the Alps-Carpathian-Corridor project , aiming at facilitate migration of large mammals between the two mountain ranges.

The following day was dedicated to the 6th official meeting of the Platform “Ecological network” of the Alpine Convention . In parallel a meeting with representatives from the Carpathians was held, in order to discuss the creation of a similar working group in the frame of the Carpathian Convention. The international conference itself was held on Wednesday, offering numerous presentations of concrete best practice examples and working experiences from both mountain areas. There was also enough room for discussions, one of the main aims of this meeting being the definition of future cooperation projects on this specific topic.

The meeting was closed with an excursion to the Pavla protected area nearby, with an introduction to local problems concerning ecological connectivity but at the same time offering also the possibility to further deepen the exchange between the participants in a more informal frame.

All in all, these days have permitted to set the bases for future cooperation projects and represent a further step to strengthen the good exchange between the two mountain ranges on a topic that is of particular importance for nature protection in the future.  

“The first time I took part in exchanges with the REEMA was at the workshop organised in Zernez during the Alparc meeting. I saw men and women responsible for education on the environment in the protected areas of the Alpine massif. They were gathered around a table and on that table, in pride of place, was an egg.

They spoke about how we need to overcome the fears and apprehensions related to nature by drawing on knowledge and positive feelings; at that point the shell began to crack. Despite language barriers they showed their desire to share their experiences and, as they opened their arms, the bird spread its wings and began to fly. Disregarding borders, it started its journey through the Alpine range, towards that which unites men and shapes the Alpine identity. If you see that bird in the Alpine skies, tell yourself that its journey has hardly begun and that each of us has the choice of deciding whether to follow it or not”...

Frank Miramand, ASTERS - Conservatory of Natural Areas of Haute-Savoie. 

A Motivating First Meeting 

 Several people responsible for education about the environment in the various protected areas in the Alps had the opportunity of meeting for the first time for a workshop dedicated to the theme of their work on 19 and 20 October 2010 alongside the ALPARC General Assembly in the Swiss National Park .

Inscriptions poured in – proof of how important and topical this theme is- and unfortunately some delegates had to be refused (except for protected areas).

Finally 26 people looked into their profession and the possibilities for cooperation on an Alpine scale. The meeting was co-organised with the Reema (Alpine Network for Education about the Mountain Environment), which brings together those responsible for environmental education in the French Alpine protected areas. The other Alpine countries were equally well-represented so that 1/3 of the participants were French, 1/3 Italian and 1/3 German-speaking (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). Most importantly, they were all very motivated!  

The Prospects for the Group

 Apart from the primary objective of meeting opposite numbers from other Alpine parks or reserves in order to exchange thoughts about their profession and their experiences, the aim of the meeting was to define together ideas on common actions and projects. The working group thus constituted confirmed its wish to begin collaboration on this theme on an Alpine scale within the framework of ALPARC.

The meeting made it possible to list various working directions and several ideas for actions or more developed projects: participation in the Phénoclim programme , setting up of common teaching tools, pooling of resources, think tanks on educational values ( Alpine identities, mountain culture …), work on the assessment of educational initiatives but also on the recognition of the educational mission inside the parks, etc…

It now remains to define priorities and a working schedule for the group who are notably going to use a collaboration space online which is in the process of being set up. 

Education about the Mountain Environment, an Essential Mission of the Alpine Protected Areas

These exchanges revealed the feeling that there is a lack of consideration for the educational mission inside the protected areas (in most of the countries represented) in comparison with other missions such as research or scientific monitoring. This is often expressed by a lack of human and financial means.

It has become apparent, however, that education about the mountain environment is one of the essential missions of the Alpine protected areas. This is because enabling their inhabitants and visitors, young and old, to discover, feel and experience the mountains and Alpine nature (“educating through the heart and emotions”), is a vital first step towards the respect of this environment! The delegates therefore wished to give a reminder that environment education is a real tool in the protection of nature.

To Join the Working Group

If you are responsible for environmental education in an Alpine protected area, but were not present at this meeting, you can of course join the working group for the continuation of the work: contact marie.stoeckel@alparc.org

 The Ecological Continuum Initiative has developed a very unusual communication tool: a large wall that can easily be set up in a public space or a pedestrian zone to restrict access. The barrier illustrates the difficulties that roads and conurbations create for wildlife by cutting off their migratory routes.

The wall contains animal-shaped blank sections and displays information on how natural habitats are being linked up in networks. In October 2010, as part of the International Year of Biodiversity, six walls were erected at the same time in six major Alpine towns and attracted a lot of media attention. 

Using the walls during your own event

Are you planning an event to focus attention on the fragmentation of natural habitats? If so, why not make use of one of the six walls, free of charge, during the event? Information brochures suitable for handing out to passers-by are also available.

For more information and to obtain a paper copy of the information brochures, contact Mateja Pirc .  

www.flickr.com/photos/39083648@N03/sets/72157625341148353

Stop – no way through! A giant wall blocks the way of pedestrians in Zurich/CH, Vienna/A, Munich/D, Ljubljana/SI, Milan/I and Lyon/F. For animals, it’s the same every day: streets and settlements increasingly fragment their migration routes.

Against the background of the 10th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biodiversity, being held in Nagoya, Japan in the second half of October, the ‘Ecological Continuum Initiative’ demonstrated with ‘The Wall’ on 20 October how important interlinked habitats are for the survival of many plant and animal species.

Take a look at some media reports from the different countries at this link: www.alpine-ecological-network.org

Source: press release by Cipra International, in the frame of the Ecological Continuum, gathering CIPRA, ALPARC, WWF and ISCAR

   A new report “Implementing a Pan-Alpine Ecological Network - A Compilation of Major Approaches, Tools and Activities” on the alpine activities on ecological connectivity over the past years has been published in the series “BfN Skripten” of the German Federal Agency of Nature Protection.
During the last few years various documents, publications and reports which reflect approaches, tools and activities that support the implementation of an ecological network across the Alps have been published. Some of this information had not been made available for a wide public until now. Others exist only as comprehensive independent publications. Therefore these activities and results have now been compiled and summarised by the Ecological Continuum Initiative in the report “Implementing a Pan-Alpine Ecological Network - A Compilation of Major Approaches, Tools and Activities”.

This new report is available in English language. It is available for download here . You can order your free copy writing to kerstin.lehmann@bfn.de

  The second international meeting of the pilot regions which proceeded in Dobbiaco/Toblach on April 22, 2010 bore its fruits. Indeed, the pilot regions adopted a common tool, entitled JECAMI (Joint Ecological Continuum Analysing and Mapping Initiative-Web services).
This instrument is proposed by the Swiss National Park in collaboration with the Arinas company;

The benefits of this initiative are numerous, indeed, it will make it possible the Pilot regions to apply a strategy harmonized in order to analyze the situation of ecological connectivity. 

 The pilot regions will be able to identify the ideal and priority surface to establish future measures of connectivity, then to make use of it like support of communication on Internet for the various users, and authorities.

This easily accessible tool will bring a visibility of connectivity. It will be possible to visualize at the same time the habitats of the species and the results of connectivity. 

Econnect awaited an effective tool to incorporate and to combine the space results of the project and a facilitated access of all the stakeholders concerned, it’s done!

Ruedi Haller from the Swiss National Park presents the cartographic tool JECAMI 

http://www.alparc.org/the-alparc-network/a-spatial-network/project-econnect

Link(s) :

• Alpine Space ETC Programme
• Project ECONNECT A project of the ETC programme Alpine Space          

 The Ecological Continuum Initiative has published a new series of fact sheets for local stakeholders in German, French and Italian language that are now available online.

The fact sheets are not only informative brochures; their main objective is to put the ideas into action. This is why their target group are the stakeholders, who directly implement ecological networks (e.g. from the ECONNECT pilot regions).

The series of these ten fact sheets covers the most important fields of work, where connectivity measures should be implemented: agriculture, forestry, water management, hunting and fishing, spatial planning, transports, nature protection, tourism, municipalities, and other important players in the establishment of ecological networks.

Each fact sheet will explain the importance from its perspective, regarding ecological connectivity and list concrete measures that stakeholders will be encouraged to implement. Furthermore, good-practice examples from the Alps will be presented in each fact sheet and will show that connectivity measures do work. These good examples will motivate the stakeholders to imitate them. 

The printable pdf version of the fact sheets on nature protection, agriculture, transports, landscape planning, water management and forestry are already available for download at: www.alpine-ecological-network.org.

 Established in 2008, the Nagelfluhkette Nature Park brings together communities in the southern Allgäu and the Vorderer Bregenzerwald. It is the first nature park to span the border between Germany and Austria. The communities contained in the protected area are all located in the renowned Nagelfluhkette range. The massif is mainly composed of Nagelfluh, a conglomerate made from innumerable riverbed pebbles of varying sizes which have been compacted to form the rock. The most famous peak is the Hochgrat (1,834 m) which rears up more than 1,000 m above the surrounding valleys. The Nagelfluhkette Nature Park is home to many valuable species, including capercaillie, black grouse, golden eagles, white-backed woodpeckers and mountain apollos.

Because of the area's geological diversity, the deep soil layers can be both chalky and sandy. Consequently, the plant life is incredibly rich and varied. As well as Alchemilla cleistophylla (Allgäu lady's mantle), a plant endemic to the protected area, plant-lovers will find purple gentian, wood pinks and noble silver firs.
The Nagelfluhkette is an area of established, mature farmland which is surprisingly well preserved given its location on the edge of the northern Alps. This reflects the importance of agriculture, with around 400 farmers, many of whom use Alpine farming practices which have shaped the landscape. There is an unusually high proportion of grazing meadows on both sides of the border. 

 Alongside agriculture and forestry, tourism has been a mainstay of the area covered by the natural park for the last century. The 14 communities within the protected area have an impressive 20,000 beds on offer in hotels, guesthouses and holiday homes in order to cater for around 2.5 million overnight stays each year.

The new management body has a lot on its plate. The currently priorities are developing sustainable tourism products (top quality walking paths and networks of paths); setting up environmental education activities (programme of walks and field trips, information points); promoting sales of regional products (partnership scheme), and providing practical support for sustainable regional development. The management body is based in Oberstaufen, Germany, and is responsible for the whole nature park, including the parts in Austria. The management board and committees all contain representatives from both sides of the border which is beneficial for joint development projects.

Rolf Eberhard, director

Contact details:

  Naturpark Nagelfluhkette e.V.
Schloßstraße 8
D-87534 Oberstaufen
Tel. 0049 8386 9300 -328 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0049 8386 9300 -328 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Fax. 0049 8386 9300 -339

www.nagelfluhkette.info

info@naturpark-nagelfluhkette.eu

Park's identity card

 The Alps and the Carpathians shelter a large variety of large wild animals such as deer, lynx, wolf or bear – species that nowadays strongly depend on humans for the conservation of their natural habitat.

The corridor between the Alps and the Carpathians is a traditional migration route for wildlife. This corridor does not only connect the Eastern border of the Alps with the Little Carpathians in Slovakia but also crosses a highly dynamic European region located between the cities of Bratislava, Sopron and Vienna.

In the frame of this transboundary project financed by European funds, several actors collaborate with the aim of the definition and exemplary realisation of concrete activities to improve ecological connectivity. These actors come from nature protection and landscape planning and cooperate with partners from transport, agri- and silviculture, hunting or tourism and also with the concerned communes.

After an intensive preparation phase the project was started mid February 2010. Several partners from Austria and Slovakia are involved in the project.  

  The Alps-Carpathians corridor supports the aims of the Alpine Convention and constitutes, besides the Danube and the Green Belt along the former “iron curtain”, a major migration route of European importance.

Link to the official project homepage:

http://www.alpenkarpatenkorridor.at/

Further information about the project:

http://www.wwf.at/de/akk/

In response to global warming, the Hohe Tauern National Park in Austria has decided to lead by example. Working together with political decision-makers, the Park's Mittersill visitor centre (Salzburg) is expanding its environmental education programme. The National Park Climate Change School project is designed to teach children and young people how to respect the natural world.

Building on the environmental education formula of experience + knowledge = informed action, young people are shown a wheel of time that indicates how the climate has changed over the last few thousand of years and its impact on the Pasterze glacier. The commentary also refers to the large block of ice housed in the visitor centre. Schoolchildren who visit the National Park are taught about a wide range of climate issues in the purpose-built Science Centre . The Science Centre has its own weather station which can be used to compare meteorological date and thereby demonstrate the realities of global warming. With the aid of a thermometer, pupils observe the difference in temperature gains when sun shines into a clean or CO2-rich atmosphere.

Many schoolteachers who have brought their students to Hohe Tauern National Park confirm that this educational format is very effective. Around 25,000 schoolchildren from Austria, Germany and Switzerland have taken part in the National Park's environmental education programme. Hopefully, given the scale of the audience, future generations will have a more sustainable view of the natural world.

Source: summary of a Hohe Tauern National Park press release

Succès pour la première journée de randonnée pour personnes handicapées au Parc régional Chasseral / Suisse

Se retrouver en pleine nature, loin du goudron, pour des personnes handicapées est désormais chose possible. La preuve au Parc régional Chasseral / Suisse où la première journée de randonnée pour les personnes à mobilité réduite a été un vrai succès. Grâce à des chaises roulantes tout terrain, les joëlettes, 15 personnes handicapées et une vingtaine d’accompagnants ont partagé une promenade, sur des sentiers parfois escarpés, dans la joie et la bonne humeur.

La Joëlette est un fauteuil tout terrain mono-roue qui permet la pratique de la randonnée à toute personne à mobilité réduite, enfant ou adulte même très lourdement dépendant avec l’aide de deux pilotes. Elle ouvre pour des personnes à mobilité réduite un horizon complètement inaccessible auparavant. Grâce à son système de frein et d'excellents amortisseurs, cet engin permet d'emprunter des sentiers escarpés et de découvrir des paysages nouveaux dont les amoureux de la nature ne sauront se passer. Les familles ont ainsi la possibilité de partir ensemble en randonnée. L'utilisation de la Joëlette est très simple. Elle se démonte et se plie pour faciliter le transport. 

L’aventure de la première journée de randonnée pour personnes handicapées est née de la collaboration entre GSAB Aventures, spécialiste du sport adapté, le Parc régional Chasseral et 9 institutions des cantons du Jura, Berne, Neuchâtel et Vaud.

Forts de ce succès, le prestataire et le parc régional prévoient de développer ensemble un nouvel événement de sport adapté lors de la journée européenne des Parcs en mai 2010.