Le Réseau Alpin des Espaces Protégés
The Reading Mountains Festival is a way to connect people that love books and mountains, despite them being physically apart. Book lovers and authors, mountaineers and artists throughout the Alps (and beyond) have a chance to discuss similar issues and evaluate the meaning, impact, and purpose of Alpine literature.
In the lead up to International Mountain Day 2021, the #ReadingMountains Festival will once again pay tribute to the linguistic and cultural heritage in the Alps. This year too, there can be no limits to the creativity of events in the Alpine-wide festival, which can take place online, in-person, or in hybrid form. Registration to organize an event for the 2021 edition goes through the dedicated online form. The Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention will support the promotion of events through social media as well as with posters, bookmarks, and other promotional materials. Only events registered by 30 November 2021 will be guaranteed promotional materials.
The award is a new competition to support Green Economy in the Alpine Macroregion. The competition is an initiative of the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP), financially supported by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation and operated by PLANVAL.
EUSALP is looking for innovative and sustainable ideas, products, services and business models in the Alpine Region. Everyone from the Alpine Region can participate in the competition: start-ups, long-established companies, institutions, associations, private persons or teams. An international jury will select 6 winners.
Proposals can be submitted until 15 January 2022! Participation is easy. Applicants just have to enter the official website and fill in the short application form.
More information at www.gi-goes-business.eu.
The global pandemic saw school closures in over 180 countries. Many protected areas had to cancel or downsize their education activities outdoor over several weeks and months. However, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is crucial to be maintained as it can help to build resilience, raise awareness, and change behavior to transform our lives towards more sustainable patterns. Even though many activities outside could not be performed as before, several protected areas found new approaches for implementing activities even digitally. In the present survey we wanted to gain an overview on how the protected areas dealt with the challenge and adapted their activities according to national regulations.
250 guests, twelve speakers from five countries, a common vision: last October Bad Hofgastein was the venue for the fourth international symposium Healing Power of the Alps, this year for the first time spanning the Alps. The topic: How to use the healing power of the Alps to redefine sustainable tourism. Representatives of international initiatives from across the Alpine region met in Bad Hofgastein to discuss this new approach to tourism. “The overall goal is to position the Alpine region as a globally attractive health destination with a vibrant regional economy, especially after the pandemic,” said Salzburg State Minister Daniela Gutschi at the opening of the symposium. She continued, “The wealth of the Alpine region lies in its healing power.”
Since the times of the Roman empire, thermal waters being one of the Alpine healing resources have been used and recommended for nurturing body and soul. Nowadays an ever-increasing part of the population is interested in innovative touristic services for health and wellbeing, for keeping themselves vital and active. The Private Medical University Paracelsus of Salzburg is a forerunner regarding evidence-based research on different Alpine healing resources such as waterfalls, microbioma or dairy products. For example, Asthma in patients could be significantly reduced after repeated stays close to specific waterfalls. Moreover, clinical studies found a positive correlation between a holiday stay in the Alps and the relationship quality for couples aged between 50 and 65 years. These are just some concrete findings which hold substantial potential for Alpine regions to unfold their hidden healing power and developing new touristic products. In this sense even remote regions suffering from brain drain and low economic power might be able to develop new local value chains, valorizing their region and leading to vital businesses while promoting also resilience of Alpine resources and the soundness of ecological systems.
Top-class speakers such as Prof. Dr. Christian Baumgartner and Franz Fischler, President of the European Forum Alpbach and former EU Agriculture Commissioner provided interesting insights on the development of tourism in the Alps and the different notions associated to sustainable development. Several stakeholder workshops on different topics such as agriculture and farms, forests under guidance of Prof. Robert Lymann, Julia Saller, Dr. Michael Bischof and many others allowed for discussion and in-depth exchange in smaller groups.
“Healing Power of the Alps” was part of a series of events in the framework of the Alpine Convention dedicated to sustainable Alpine tourism and was organised in cooperation with ArgeAlp. More information can be found on the official website: https://healing-alps.eu
PHOTO: © Agentur Salic David Wedenig
This colorful publication gathers 26 local recipes from all over the Alps and the Carpathians and it includes drawings made by the young people who took part in Youth at the Top 2021. Each recipe is described in the 4 Alpine languages + English.
The event "Leaving small traces on the way – a virtual afternoon hike to selected examples of visitor guidance in the Alps" is addressed to the 4 pilot regions from the "speciAlps2" project as well as interested parties from the entire Alpine region. It is co-organise by CIPRA internal and Alliance in the Alps. The event aims to share good examples, experiences and grievances as well as inspire all participants and discuss together a selection of possibilities to guide visitors in the Alps. Therefore, all participants are invited to bring in personal examples on the topic of "visitor management". In this context, ALPARC will present the alpine project "Be Part of the Mountain" (see programme below).
The public exchange meeting will take place online and will be interpreted simultaneously in the four different Alpine languages.
On 7 November 1991 the leaders of the Alpine countries sat down to sign a pioneering agreement for the protection and sustainable development of the Alps: the Alpine Convention. This created a unique, legally binding sustainability instrument aimed at safeguarding the sensitive Alpine ecosystems, the regional cultural identities and heritage in the Alps now and for the future. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary, a celebratory video was produced with contributions from the Ministers and delegates from the Contracting Parties, Observer organisations, Infopoints and many other valuable partners from across the Alpine region. Kind and inspiring messages arrived from past and present members of the Alpine Convention family – these can be watched in the anniversary video.
In addition to this look back, the Permanent Committee also looks ahead to the future – with the launch of the new Alpine Convention video. Through beautiful and captivating scenery and a symphonic soundtrack composed specially for the video, the film introduces the Alpine Convention and the important work it does in the Alpine region. The new video is available on the YouTube channel of the Alpine Convention.
The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference has been launched on Monday, November 1 in Glasgow (United Kingdom), in the presence of many heads of state. In the worrying climate context pointed out by the IPCC last August, the objective of this annual conference is to assess progress in dealing with climate change, and to establish legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The event takes the form of a series of Conferences of the Parties (COP).
Under the Paris Agreement adopted at the COP21, countries submitted pledges called nationally determined contributions, to limit their greenhouse gas emissions. Under the framework of the Paris Agreement, each country is expected to submit enhanced nationally determined contributions every five years, to ratchet up ambition to mitigate climate change. The COP26 is the first time that parties are expected to commit to enhanced ambition since COP21. Ahead of the Conference, G20 leaders met in Rome the previous weekend and reaffirmed in unison the goal of limiting warming to +1.5°C above the pre-industrial era - the most ambitious cap in the Paris agreement - adding an ambition of carbon neutrality around mid-century and an end to subsidies for coal plants abroad.
UNESCO Biosphäre Entlebuch is running a new exhibition on sustainable provision of life quality in the Entlebuch UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, until March 2022.
What constitutes a high quality of life? What aspects are important for a high quality of life? And how can a high quality of life and sustainability be reconciled?
The exhibition "We love Äntlibuech" deals with these questions and focuses on the Entlebuch and its inhabitants. The exhibition is based on the research project "Sustainable quality of life in parks of national importance" by the University of Bern. This showed that the average quality of life in the Entlebuch is very high - even higher than in other regions of Switzerland. The research results serve as the basis for a search for clues: Why is the quality of life in the Entlebuch particularly high? Which aspects of life make the quality of life particularly high? And what about the sustainability of this high quality of life: can our grandchildren still enjoy the same high quality of life - or are we living beyond our means?
The exhibition will not provide definitive answers. It is intended to encourage visitors to think about their own quality of life: What makes it so? How long will it last? How satisfied am I with important aspects? So it is also about taking a critical look at one's own life. Here and there, the exhibition will offer ways and alternatives to well-rehearsed patterns of life that suit some, but not others. The aim of the exhibition is to become aware of the various aspects of one's own quality of life and to dare to take a step here and there towards a more sustainable quality of life.
Landscape in Switzerland is under continuous pressure due to demographic change, mobility, intensive agriculture and tourism growth. Endangered species amount for 36% of the assessed plant animal and fungus species. Consequently, the Swiss tourism branche should have a resource protecting attitude towards landscape. Discussions regarding protection and long term use of scarce resources need to be objective and on a high quality level. However, large parts of the tourism branche still perceive the conservation of landscape quality as an obstacle to development, limiting the region’s potential. The Corona pandemic led to an breaking of global tourist flows and high-quality inland tourism might become highly important for Swiss tourism providers. Hence, the promotion of landscapes’ attractiveness must be understood as an impulse measure for stimulating Swiss tourism on different levels. The study, commissioned by the Federal Office for the Environment and conducted by Schmid Pelli & Partner, aims at delivering a constructive input for the cooperation among landscape experts and tourism stakeholders in order to increase consciousness on the quality of landscape as a change and development potential for Swiss tourism.
The 7th edition of the “Youth at the Top” project took place from 8 to 9 July 2021. For this international event, coordinated by ALPARC, about 500 young people meet every year for a two days hike and an overnight in the mountains. The local events are organized simultaneously in numerous protected areas across the Alps and Carpathians. The project offers young people between the ages of 5 and 25 the opportunity to reconnect with their natural and cultural heritage. It is also an opportunity to remind them of the bond that they share with their neighboring countries and of the importance of protecting the sensitive mountainous region that they inhabit.
Despite the restrictions imposed by Covid 19, the 2021 edition was a real success with 36 local events in 9 different countries. On July 8th and 9th, many young people from France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Poland, Slovakia and Romania took part in a mountain hike, followed by a night in a tent, in a hut or even -for most groups- under the stars.
For this edition, the organizers were invited to schedule various activities on the theme of "Local Food". That theme was particularly well received by the young people: milking the goats, visiting a cheese factory, blind tasting, outdoor cooking... the activities around this common theme were numerous and diverse. Although the local dishes were very well received, this topic was above all an opportunity to draw the attention of young people to current issues: the decline of biodiversity and climate change are closely linked to Western consumption and production patterns: intensive agriculture, excessive packaging and transport lead to poor air quality, excessive pesticide use and waste problems. Ironically, we depend on the same nature and environment to feed ourselves. The decrease in pollinators is a living proof of this. Some of these impacts and threats have been addressed by the organizers through pedagogical activities, that should remind the youngsters of the importance of protecting and preserving our nature. Each group was also invited to illustrate a local specialty and an international recipe book with the drawings of the young people is currently under preparation.
Despite bad weather conditions in some part of the Alps, the event was -once again- a real success, and the young people and the organizers are already looking forward to the 2022 edition!
PHOTO: Babia Góra National Park
On September 4th 2021, the integrale reserve "Roche Grande" was established in the heart of the Mercantour National Park (France). The challenge: to study ecological processes without any human intervention and therefore in free evolution. The territory of this reserve extends over an area of about 500 ha and presents a vast set of lawns on limestone, cliffs and scree as well as some forest habitats. No human activity or presence is now allowed, so as to observe natural evolution. This creation of an integral reserve is only the third in France and is the result of collaborative work between the municipality of Entraunes, the National Forestry Office (NFO), the Communauté de communes Alpes d'Azur and the Mercantour National Park.
Ultimately, the goal is to have scientific references on the response of natural habitats and species, in a context of climate change. This data will make it possible to define evolutionary trajectories and assess the resilience of lawn systems and the animals that live there in the face of long- and short-term climatic events, such as droughts or extreme weather events. This reserve will be a laboratory site for innovative scientific work carried out by the National Park, the NFO and their partners.
Original statement (in French): http://www.mercantour-parcnational.fr/fr/actualites/une-reserve-integrale-dans-le-coeur-du-parc-national-du-mercantour
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