La Rete delle Aree Protette Alpine
The Alps are, like many European regions, affected by soil sealing. Valleys as well as areas of low-, and mid-altitude are especially concerned by this development. Therefore, special tools from the field of Spatial Planning are needed. The mission of the OpenSpaceAlps project is to reinforce the transnational knowledge exchange in affected regions and to identify open spaces in the Alps with a spatial development below 10 or 20% of settlements or infrastructure) in order to find appropriate solutions to safeguard them for generations to come.
On 9 May 2022, ALPARC organized the French chapter of the event #Spatial planners for open spaces in the Alps, this was a space where the main results of the project OpenSpaceAlps were shared and discussed with local stakeholders.
Among other results presented, a special emphasis was made about the relevance of the OpenSpaceAlps Handbook for planners, the Alpswide mapping and the strategic recommendations. The meeting also served as an opportunity to extend the invitation to the participants to learn more about the AlpPlanNetwork and about all the tools and documents produced in the course of the project.
Find more information about the OpenSpaceAlps project here.
The first catalogue of walking trips has been created, which has as its theme the coexistence between people and wolves in the Alps. In this catalogue, seven backpacking trips through eight protected areas of the Alps are offered. This allows visitors to discover unique landscapes, where valleys, hills, high-altitude grasslands, pastures and woods showing a centuries-old story of life in dialogue with the mountains.
The existence of the wolf is a controversial theme which is oftenly debated in an emotional manner. One important question is the way to work with the wolf next door. This LIFE WolfAlps EU project and Viaggi e Miraggi, Cooperativa Sociale Onlus have launched this idea to create paths in Alpine protected areas showing the coexistence between people and wolves.
Learn more about this project: https://bit.ly/3uU13Hn or in the download area below (in Italian only)
The Lynx Trail is a long-distance trail with 11 stages through three large internationally recognised protected areas and fringes Austria's first UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site (beech forests). It goes through Austria's wild, wooded central area, repeatedly recognised by the Alpine Convention as a pilot region for its ecological network. The lynx is the symbol of the mystery of wilderness. The trail follows ecological stepping-stones created for the lynx and takes you right through its habitat. You can feel its presence. The trail can give walkers a spiritual connection with wilderness and reawakens our need for a primal connection with nature. Hikers on the trail are in the presence of something wonderful, even if they don’t see a lynx.
You can book the Lynx Trail now online.
Click on this link for more information.
The restored themed trail preserves the former content and inspires visitors with new tips to experience one of the most beautiful valleys in the Alps.
The trail runs along the road and crosses it several times, thus offering several possible starting points for walking along shorter sections of the trail. For people in wheelchairs and prams, there is a part of the trail, that leads to the Palenk waterfall, as well as a shorter circular section of the trail next to the mountain hut Dom planincev.
The content of the boards, mobile app ''The pure power of nature'' and guided tours through the landscape park shows the exceptional natural features and the consciousness of the locals who have harmonized their lives with nature. A walk through the most beautiful corners of the Logar valley; from the source of the Črna river to the Rinka waterfall also attracts visitors to discover historical and ethnological features.
The locals and the managers of the trail are inviting you to take a walk through the natural-ethnographic trail in Logar valley. It will take away different images from you at any time of the year. You can meet a different story, a song or a warm handshake at every step. The content of the trail emphasize the thought: "The Logar valley is not here to be changed, but to change us."
Click here for more information and below you can find an information brochure.
For the past 3 years, ALPARC has been an official observer of the Interreg Project Centralparks. The final conference of the project will take place on 23 & 24 March 2022, in Wieliczka (Poland) and online. The event is entitled “Transnational cooperation for the sustainable future of the Carpathian region”.
The Carpathians belong to the most important European eco-regions. Biodiversity loss and increasing pressures threaten its outstanding natural values. Traditional approaches to resource management and nature conservation are no longer sufficient to guarantee long-lasting economic benefits and provision of ecosystem services. Such problems cannot be solved by one country alone and require transnational cooperation. To tackle these challenges and to improve management capacities in protected areas, the project “Centralparks” was developed. The project promotes joint actions for integrated management of biodiversity, including joint transnational thematic task forces, involving experts from Carpathian countries. The project aims to reconcile nature conservation and local socio-economic development in order to raise also the support and involvement of local communities. Centralparks encourages transnational networking, aims at harmonizing approaches at the international level and aims to facilitate the harmonization of measures undertaken in border and transboundary-protected areas. Common strategies elaborated during the project will be submitted for the endorsement by the Carpathian Convention.
"The IPCC has finalized the second part of the Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, the Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report. It was finalized on 27 February 2022 during the 12th Session of Working Group II and 55th Session of the IPCC."
BERLIN, Feb 28 – Human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks. People and ecosystems least able to cope are being hardest hit, said scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released today.
“This report is a dire warning about the consequences of inaction,” said Hoesung Lee, Chair of the IPCC. “It shows that climate change is a grave and mounting threat to our wellbeing and a healthy planet. Our actions today will shape how people adapt and nature responds to increasing climate risks.”
“This report recognizes the interdependence of climate, biodiversity and people and integrates natural, social and economic sciences more strongly than earlier IPCC assessments,” said Hoesung Lee. “It emphasizes the urgency of immediate and more ambitious action to address climate risks. Half measures are no longer an option.”
Press Release: https://www.ipcc.ch/2022/02/28/pr-wgii-ar6/
In 2021, Youth at the Top has reached its 7th edition! Every year about 600 young people take part in this adventure by joining in one of the events taking place simultaneously throughout the natural areas of the Alps and the Carpathians: a unique experience which invites them to reconnect with their natural and cultural heritage and learn to live together. In 2021 the common theme of “Local Food” was the opportunity to recall how important it is to use natural resources responsibly to promote the sustainable development of their mountain region.
Created in 2012, the multivision pays visual tribute to the diversity and the beauty found in the Alps. This collective, unique and original audiovisual experience is a joint project of ALPARC and 20 partners, managers of more than sixty Alpine protected areas, in 6 Alpine countries (Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland). The multivision production has been created by Alex Gordon Rowbotham and set to original music by Sandro di Stefano.
The 8th edition of the international event Youth at the Top will take place on July 12th 2022 (and the night of July 12th to 13th). Registration is now open! The common topic of this year’s edition is “Water in all its forms”. Protected areas, organizations, youth associations, local professionals, and refuges from all over the Alps and the Carpathians are all invited to take part in this international event and to plan an educational activity on the common theme.
Youth at the Top is an international event that aims to help young people (re)discover nature and connect to their mountain heritage. It is organized through local events that take place simultaneously in different countries across the Alps and Carpathians. It has a highly symbolic dimension as hundreds of young people go out and experience nature on a single date through an overnight stay in the mountains. Each registered organization is invited to plan a hike, an overnight stay in the mountains, an activity on the common topic “Water in all its forms” and other educational activities to help the younger generation reconnect with the mountain environment. The project leaves a lot of leeway to the participating organizations to organize local events according to their goals and capabilities. Important notice: The terms of the 2022 edition might depend of the evolution of the covid-crisis.
Youth at the Top is for all kinds of young people from 6 to 25 years old. Young people living in the Alpine and Carpathians valleys are highly encouraged to get involved.
To register for the 2022 edition, you are invited to briefly describe the activities you have planned to do over the two days on this online form. Once registered, your event and the description given will be displaced on the event section of the Youth at the Top website. Filling out this form does not commit you in any way; it simply shows your motivation to take part in the event. Participation is free of charge. ALPARC members can be awarded a grant for their event organization under certain conditions. Further information will be given once you’ve sent your form.
• Watch the 2021 “best of” video
• Read the project sheet
• Visit the project website
The 8th edition of Youth at the Top is coordinated by ALPARC with the financial support of the Principality of Monaco.
Photo: © UNESCO Biosphere Entlebuch
The success of the initiative is confirmed by its numbers: almost 3,500 images have taken part in the 2021 selection.
The 15th edition of the international contest "Fotografare il Parco", organised by the National Parks of Stelvio, Gran Paradiso, Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise, and de la Vanoise, with the patronage of Alparc, Federparchi, and the participation of the media partner La Rivista della Natura, has come to an end. The great participation of photography enthusiasts and the high technical, artistic, and naturalistic value of the images presented, confirmed the important role that "Fotografare il Parco" has taken on in the panorama of photography contests.
The three absolute winners well represent the different approaches and "disciplines" of nature photography. First place went to the highly evocative image of an ibex facing the force of a storm by Stanislao Basileo; second place was taken by Marco Antonini's photo of the "dance of life" of a couple of demoiselle cranes in the delicate moment of egg laying. Third place went to the dramatic black and white, enhanced by the range of chiaroscuros, taken by Véronique Andre's photo showing the effects of a summer snowfall on the steep faces of the Dent Parrachée in the Vanoise massif.
The categories dedicated to the individual protected areas saw the success of Maurizio Trifilidis' "Autumn on Lake Barrea" (for the Abruzzo, Lazio, and Molise National Park), the "Fairy tale of a night – Leonessa Bivouac" by Giacomo Baffetti (Gran Paradiso National Park), the "Dosegù at sunset " by Matteo Berbenni (Stelvio National Park) and the photo "Les Gliéres - Pralognan-la-Vanoise" by Jacky Deleurence (Parc National de la Vanoise).
First place in the different categories identified in the contest went to Mirko Zanetti’s “Owl” for the Park’s wildife, Fabrizio Moglia’s “Salmo trutta fario” for the Park’s micro-world and nature details, and photographer Claudia Giusti, “Drops and weaves” for the Park’s plant world.
The special price Interaction between man and environment has been assigned to “Foliage in the Park-Forca d’Acero”, a highly graphic shot in which the continuity of an autumn forest is interrupted by a sinuous strip of asphalt.
The many prizes available proved to be few compared to the number of deserving photos. The jury therefore decided to award 11 more photographs. “Fotografare il Parco” confirmed the high quality of the competing pictures and the participants’ great knowledge of nature. Their origin also confirms the contest success on the international scene: people could say that “Fotografare il Parco” knowns no boundaries, just like the beauty of nature. Fifteen editions of “Fotografare il Parco” for one hundred years of Park. This year marks the centenary of the birth of the first Italian National Parks, the Gran Paradiso and the Park of Abruzzo, Lazio, and Molise.
Italo Cerise, President of the Gran Paradiso National Park remarks "We congratulate the participants and the winners for the high-quality level and the strong emotional charge of the images submitted. In this very important year for us, in which we are celebrating our centenary, we are particularly excited to find in the absolute winning image the animal that symbolises our protected area, the ibex, which advances stubbornly with all its strength. A perfect metaphor for the tenacity with which this species and the Park itself have been facing adversity and challenges for a hundred years".
"Photography has proved to be a wonderful way of approaching nature, enclosing in a single shot - one of the thousands that can be taken today thanks to digital technology - the marvels of the natural heritage that we have been duty-bound to protect for a hundred years for future generations" - says Giovanni Cannata, President of the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park - When we take photographs, however, we must never lose sight of the main objective: respect for the nature in which we live, because there are often very fragile balances that can be damaged in very little ways. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to the many participants".
“An important birthday for all of us, the centenary of the first Italian national parks," say the spokesmen of the Stelvio and de la Vanoise National Parks. "The award ceremony for the fifteenth edition of the contest will be an opportunity to celebrate together and to celebrate, through the splendid winning images, the beauty of an environmental heritage of the entire community that all the protected areas, more or less young and regardless of national boundaries, have contributed and continue to contribute to preserving and enhancing".
Here is the complete list of winning photographs:
Overall winners
1st Bufera (Storm) by Stanislao Basileo
2nd Spawning by Marco Antonini
3rd Neige estivale – Dent Parrachée by Véronique André
Category A – Park Landscapes
Abruzzo, Lazio, and Molise National Park: Autunno sul lago di Barrea (Autumn on Lake Barrea) by Maurizio Trifilidis
Gran Paradiso National Park: Favola di una notte – Bivacco Leonessa (Fairy tale of a Night – Leonessa Bivouac) by Giacomo Baffetti
Stelvio National Park: Dosegù al tramonto (Dosegù at sunset) by Matteo Berbenni
Parc national de la Vanoise: Les Glières – Pralognan la Vanoise by Jacky Deleurence
Category B – Park Wildlife
1st Civetta (Owl) by Mirko Zanetti
2nd Spirit – Ghost of the tree by Andrea Daina Palermo
3rd Lepre variabile nella bufera (Variable hare in the storm) by Emilio Ricci
Category C – Park’s micro-world and nature details
1st Trota fario mediterranea (Salmo trutta fario) by Fabrizio Moglia
2nd In salita (Uphill) by Giuseppe Bonali
3rd Scapigliatura – Acronicta alni by Gabriele Saglibene
Category D – Park’s plant world
1st Gocce e trame (Drops and weaves) by Claudia Giusti
2nd Four trees by Melchiorre Pizzitola
3rd Tenerezze floreali (Floral tenderness) by Massimo Arcaro
Special Prize
1st Foliage nel Parco - Forca d’Acero (Foliage in the Park – Forca d’Acero) by Alessandro Currò
Recommended photographs
Sparviero (Sparrowhawk) by Melchiorre Pizzitola
Il magico mondo dei folletti (The magical world of goblins) by Melchiorre Pizzitola
Le spoglie del re (The remains of the king) by Gianluca Damiani
Galaverna – Serra Traversa by Marco Pantanella
Stambecco, il re delle Alpi (Ibex, the king of the Alps) by Christoph Platzer
Sacrificio d’amore (Sacrifice of love) by Elisa Confortini
Valle di Gavia di Luciano Antonio Cossi
L’isola che c’è – Ceresole Reale (Neverland – Ceresole Reale) by Sergio Vittorio Rosa
Luna chiama terra – Colle del Nivolet (Moon calls earth – Colle del Nivolet) by Luca Casale
Celestial vision – Lago del Moncenisio (Celestial vision – Moncenisio Lake) by Cristian Della Lucia
La salita – Monte Palombo (The ascent – Monte Palombo) by Francesco Rosato
The winning and recommended photographs can be seen at www.fotografarerilparco.it, www.pngp.it, www.parcoabruzzo.it and www.vanoise-parcnational.fr.
The date and location of the award ceremony will be arranged in the coming weeks.
Photo: Fotografare il Parco © Bufera (Storm) by Stanislao Basileo