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More sustainable living thanks to corona?

Pop-up cycle paths in cities, an organic food boom – corona promotes the trend towards more sustainable lifestyles in the Alpine countries as well. A trend that may be here to stay.

Strange but true…

Bees: small in size, big in effect

Why we need honey, pollinators and biodiversity: This question is the subject of the themed issue of SzeneAlpen, to be published in March 2020.

Sabbatical in the Alps

Take a longer break and give something back: The "Alpine Sabbatical" in Switzerland offers a meaningful alternative way of spending your free time.

Wanted: pioneering renovations and new buildings

The fifth edition of the international architecture prize, "Constructive Alps", has been launched. Renovations and new buildings that set an example for sustainable construction in the Alps can be submitted until 14 March 2020.

Point of view: For glaciers without a circus

The largest glacier ski resort in the Alps is to be built in Tyrol, Austria - on already melting glaciers. The planned connection of the ski areas in Pitztal and Ötztal goes against all reason, says Kaspar Schuler, Co-Manager of CIPRA International.

Mountaineering recognized as world cultural heritage

Unesco now lists alpinism as an intangible world cultural heritage. Alpine associations from France, Switzerland and Italy submitted the application.

Two regions, one Nature Park

Nature protection across borders. The Veglia-Devero Nature Park in Italy and the Binntal Landscape Park in Switzerland have together been certified as a “Transboundary Park”.

Solemn vigils for dying glaciers

Many Alpine glaciers have already disappeared due to global warming. In September 2019, vigils in Italy and Switzerland drew attention to this fact.

CIPRA Annual Conference 2019

Re-Imagine Alps

[Project completed] Relations between humans, and between humans and nature, are the focus of the “Re-Imagine Alps” project. People take responsibility for their environment when they feel concerned and involved. Landscape here serves as a frame of reference and focal point for the perception and communication of sustainability issues: various relationships, memories and visions are illuminated in respect of, by, and for landscape in the overall Alpine context. Responsibilities and obligations grow out of ideas and relationships.

Nature providing services in the Alps

Whether mountain forests that protect us from avalanches and clean our air, or rivers and alpine pastures that provide us drinking water, energy or nourishment: in the AlpES Project ten partner organisations from six alpine countries have evaluated and documented ecosystem services for the past three years. They will present their results on 21st and 22nd November 2018 at a Final Event in Innsbruck/A. Press representatives are kindly invited to attend.

UrbaBio

[Project completed] In the project UrbaBio, representatives of the participating Alpine Towns of Annecy, Belluno, Chambéry and Trento drew on each other's broad pool of knowledge to promote biodiversity in the city.

Bogs – a way out of the climate swamp

One hectare of bog can store as much CO2 as a car produces in a year. The Alps suffer from some of the world’s heaviest traffic – yet fewer and fewer intact bogs remain.

How intact ecosystems improve our quality of life

Nature provides us with enormous benefits. The AlpES project draws on the concept of ecosystem services in order to record these in the Alpine regions and increase their appreciation.

whatsalp

[Project completed] Starting 3rd of June 2017, a group of Alpine experts were hiking through Austria, Switzerland, France and Italy from Vienna to Nice in the course of the project “whatsalp”. They documented the current state of the Alps and exchanged experiences with different people on-site and on the way.

Salvation for the bees?

The European Commission is discussing the use of neonicotinoids. The damage caused by these insecticides also strongly affects bees.

The Alpine Rhine fête

CIPRA Liechtenstein. Taming Europe’s biggest torrent began some two hundred years ago. Today, the Alpine Rhine is a canal, its course lined for the most part by intensively used farmland and residual pockets of wetland forest.

“A picture speaks a thousand words” - SPARE Project communicating through multimedia

With a brand new collection of infographics and photo books the SPARE Project partners aim at visually communicating the current river management processes in each of the project’s five Pilot Case Study sites.

Point of view: Biodiversity Conservation: less talk, more action

May 22nd marks the International Day for Biological Diversity, an initiative brought into life by the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2000. Martha Dunbar, Project Manager for Biodiversity and Landscape, fears that now in 2017 we are still treading water.

speciAlps

[Project completed] Grasslands, marshes, hedges, biotopes and woods are examples of natural treasures and biological diversity that are of great value to alpine regions and municipalities. Not only do they offer a habitat for plants and animals, but also humans value functioning natural areas for their attractiveness and the quality of life they offer. Nevertheless, –these areas have much more potential than we often realise and there is much more every municipality can do!

whatsalps youth

[Project completed] Many young people spend most of their time indoors, sit in front of the TV or the computer. The "whatsalp youth"-project lured them out. The CIPRA Youth Council, together with CIPRA International and other project partners, was implementing it.

Paddling for the “blue heart” of Europe

The end of March saw the start of the Balkan Rivers Tour in Slovenia, the largest water protection action in Europe. The aim is to protect its last unspoilt rivers.

The wandering classroom

Young people spend the majority of their school time indoors. The new “whatsalp youth” project moves the classroom into the mountains and learning into the great outdoors.

Worthwild

[Project completed] Only minimally impacted by human intervention, areas with limited infrastructural development in the Alps provide European societies with a wide range of ecosystem services, such as the conservation of biodiversity and climate regulation.

Solstice in winter tourism

Tourism has brought wealth to the Alps. In many regions it remains an important source of income, but lack of economic diversification is also a risk. The importance and orientation of tourism differs strongly among Alpine countries, but all of them need new strategies and approaches to cope with shifts in visitor behaviour and climate change. A socio-economic transformation is needed that takes account of tourism’s past, present and future potential.

Foundations laid for Triglav National Park

It has taken 16 years, but the management plan for Slovenia’s only national park is now ready. The participatory process has ensured that it is broad-based in nature.

New project financing ensures a sound basis

Migration, youth participation, mobility, spatial planning: CIPRA International has recently received assurances for the financing of projects in these areas. Here is an overview.

Wolves once more in the firing line

Downgrading the protected status of the wolf, control, even wolf-free zones: these are some of the demands of the Alpine farming federations in the Alpine regions as part of the fitness check conducted on the Fauna Flora Habitat (FFH) directive. Nature conservation organisations respond.

The Alps are losing their snow

A recently published study shows that winters are ever shorter and the amount of snow is decreasing. The main reason for long winters becoming more and more a thing of the past is the earlier spring thaw.