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Alps overrun by traffic
Never before have such large quantities of goods been transported through Switzerland as in 2011. The title of "Transit Route Number 1", however, goes to the Brenner Pass.
News
Swiss-Italian cooperation in favor of ecological connectivity
During the last Alpine Conference in March 2011 the Alpine Convention officially nominated 8 pilot regions for ecological connectivity in the Alps.
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Solar installations in Switzerland: innovative yet infuriating
Solar modules on ski lifts and mountain-slopes: the legacy of Fukushima and rising electricity prices mean that creative solutions are needed for power production. We offer a summary of Swiss megaprojects and world premieres.
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The Alps are renewed in Poschiavo
On what sort of resources are the Alps building their future? Can climate change be an opportunity? What ought to be done to ensure that young people have prospects? The Alpine Week being held in the Swiss valley of Val Poschiavo from 5 to 8 September 2012 aims to discuss just how renewable the Alps actually are.
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Eight new nature parks in Switzerland
The first national park in the Alps was established in the Engadine in 1914. Since then there have been very few efforts in Switzerland to create other protected areas.
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Changing forests
The seminar titled Forestry and Climate Change - Thinking One Step Ahead! looks at the consequences of global warming on the timber industry, forestry and its functions. What sort of strategies are needed to ensure the sustainable development of the forest within the context of regional development?
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Powerline poles: a serious danger for the eagle-owl
Whereas populations of eagle-owl in many parts of Europe slightly increase, they stagnate or slightly reduce in Switzerland. The situation is especially critical in Valais, where only approximately ten breeding pairs are living. In the last twenty years this population has barely changed. According to a new study only ten percent of eagle-owls in Valais survive the first year of their lives. One fourth dies of electric shock when trying to sit on obsolete powerline poles, which do not correspond to current security standards.
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A media house for the Alps
The Alps are to have their own multilingual media platform. This ambitious idea was launched by the Rhaeto-Romanic department of Switzerland's public radio broadcaster. Las-Alps-Infoteca is to become "a competence centre for media in the Alps, providing news and information from the Alps and about the Alps".
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Olympic Games: no benefit to the national economy
Switzerland is once again discussing its candidacy for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Environmental organisations are warning against the ecological and economic repercussions. Even Marco Blatter, former CEO of Swiss Olympic, has been quoted on Swiss radio, saying that he was glad the 2006 Games were not held in the Valais. He added that in Turin/I the Games had grown out of all proportion. "With all the infrastructure investments Turin cost around CHF 4.5 bn; Vancouver is costing around CHF 6 bn; and Sochi 2014 is officially budgeting for CHF 13 bn," reports Switzerland's SonntagsZeitung.
News
Wall blocks centres of six cities
In protest against the fragmentation of habitats in the Alpine space Stop – no way through! Today, 20 October 2010, a giant wall blocks the way of pedestrians in Zurich, Vienna, Munich, Ljubljana and Milan. 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, now being held in Nagoya, Japan, WWF, CIPRA, ALPARC and ISCAR (the ‘Ecological Continuum Initiative’) demonstrate with ‘The Wall’ how important interlinked habitats are for the survival of many plant and animal species.
Press/Media release
climalp video: living in a plus-energy house
CIPRA's climalp project demonstrates that energy-efficient houses built using regionally sourced timber are highly beneficial when it comes to living comfort, the climate, and the regional economy. A recent video featuring the single-family home of the Götz family built in Switzerland's Rhine valley in 2004 illustrates what sustainable, climate-friendly building can look like in practice.
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The chestnut forest plays host to a rare guest: Alliance in the Alps network of municipalities
The little bat somehow looked different. Filigree in form, brownish in colour, and with a ringed wing it huddled in the corner of the nesting box on the chestnut tree. Nicola Zambelli put on his gloves and pulled gently on the wing tip to examine the ring.
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Swiss research into sustainable water use
Melting glaciers create new lakes in the Alps. This creates new tourism potential and new risks, such as floods and landslides, for the inhabitants of the valleys. Where and when are such lakes created? Who owns them and who is responsible for them?
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Kick-off for a new alpine media house
The "Las-Alps Infoteca" project was launched at the end of April in Chur/CH. In the coming five years, a competence centre will be established for media products that are relevant to the Alps. The project will be realized in two phases: in the first phase the focus will be on the provision of media products, in the second the centre will also produce and market its own products.
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Uphill with solar energy
The village of Tenna in the Safien valley of the Swiss canton Graubünden is working hard on a world premiere. The Skilift Tenna cooperative has decided to replace an ancient ski lift by the first solar-powered ski lift ever.
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Rhaetian Triangle: new online tools and support for local initiatives
The Swiss National Park (SNP) is currently developing a web based tool to analyze barriers and corridors of the large pilot region Rhaetian Triangle. Furthermore, two local initiatives are concretely acting for the restoration of ecological connectivity. The new map application will allow comparing a freely defined area with other areas in the neighbourhood and identifying the fields with high need of action according to selected indices.
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Keeping water-related projects flowing - Awards for a precious resource
Two awards are now up for grabs for projects in the water sector. The International ReSource Award for Sustainable Watershed Management aims to promote innovative projects with regional measures aimed at protecting water as a resource. The Award is open to projects that have a pioneering character in the local context (cultural, institutional or technological).
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Extremes of climate affect spread of tree species
In a recently published study scientists at the WSL (the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape) working with an international research team demonstrated for the first time that the disappearance of tree species in certain regions is due not just to the higher mean temperature but also to extremes of climate-related events.
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Toxic glacier melts
A new study has confirmed that melting glaciers release chemical substances that have long been banned and are not longer produced by industry. Researchers from Swiss education institutes took frozen sediment core samples from the Oberaar reservoir in the Grimsel area in Switzerland and used the layers to reconstruct the history of the lake back to when it was first established in 1953.
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Beacons of energy-efficient construction in the mountains
The summer of 2009 saw the opening of the first mountain chalet to be built to the Minergy-P standard. Located in the ski area of Zermatt/CH at an altitude of 3,883 metres, the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise is a model of ecological construction at the foot of the Klein Matterhorn.
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Melting glaciers on your local mountain - what now?
On 24th and 25th September 2009 cc.alps is organising an international conference on the impact of melting glaciers on communities in collaboration with CIPRA Switzerland and the Swiss Foundation for Landscape Preservation in Crans Montana/CH.
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"RiskPlan" facilitates risk management
The "RiskPlan" analysis software was developed by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) and the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Protection (FOCP) and presented as part of the AdaptAlp Project (Adaptation to Climate Change in the Alpine Space).
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UNESCO Biosphere Entlebuch wins TO DO! Award 2008
Every year since 1995 the Institute for Tourism and Development (Studienkreis für Tourismus und Entwicklung) stages its "TO DO!" competition for socially responsible tourism.
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Advanced studies in the field of sustainable tourism
The Swiss Tourism School Siders is offering a new Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in "Heritage and Tourism - The Mountains as a Living, Working and Recreation Environment" in conjunction with the UNESCO World Heritage property of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn.
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Switzerland says No to "gigaliners"
Environmental associations have launched a campaign against the introduction of "gigaliners" on Switzerland's roads. The country's Bundesrat [Federal Council] has already clearly rejected the "monster trucks".
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Is climate change drying up the Alps?
The Alpine range will continue to fulfil its role as central Europe's water tower in the future. But not without restrictions, according to the forecasts of a current study by a group of 20 experts commissioned by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
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Rhône Glacier to melt away by 2100
Scientists at the Écoles Polytechniques Fédérales de Lausanne/CH and Zurich/CH have used complex computer simulations to predict that the Rhône Glacier in the Canton of Valais/CH will have disappeared by 2100.
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Mountain Research Initiative launches new Newsletter
The first issue of MRI NEWS has just been published. The Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) newsletter will be sent out by e-mail in English twice a year and is entirely given over to research on Global Change in mountain areas.
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2008 King Albert Mountain Award
The King Albert I Memorial Foundation held its annual award ceremony in Pontresina/CH on 6 September.
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Glittering mountain hut in the Monte Rosa massif
Construction work began last week on the new Monte Rosa Hut at the foot of the Dufourspitze above Zermatt/CH. The hut, which resembles a glittering rock crystal, is being built by the Swiss Alpine Club in the framework of the 150th anniversary of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.