Today, on 22nd May we celebrate the International Day for Biological Diversity. Read our statement on this important occasion:

Biodiversity – Alpine Convention – Protected Areas – Alps

Linking nature – Biodiversity needs connectivity

In order to preserve its extraordinary biodiversity the Alps need, even more than other regions, ecological connectivity because of their specific topography and high degree of fragmentation in the main alpine valleys.

Protected areas play a key role in protecting alpine biodiversity and ecological processes, less so if they are isolated between intensively used spaces. Often they do have “de facto” an important role of consultation or mediation for their periphery area.

Giving more weight to this role and to promote the exchange between local stakeholders and experts of the protected areas can only be beneficiary for both: good local governance of ecological processes and for biodiversity itself.

We recognize the important role of the protected areas within the process of the establishment of ecological continuums in the Alps by linking the protected areas through adequate measures and by a stronger involvement of local populations.

Markus Reiterer, Secretary General of the Alpine Convention;

Univ. Prof. Dr. med. Vet. Chris Walzer (Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, Vienna), lead partner of EU Alpine Space projects about ecological connectivity;

Guido Plassmann (Director ALPARC, Network of alpine protected areas), coordinating the international cooperation between alpine protected areas