The final report on our project Destination Parks is now available and presents the general idea of the project, introduces case studies and comes up with a conclusion summing up the general outcomes and the discussions held during the final conference, which took place on September 11th, 2019. 

The main issue seems to be the positioning of the protected areas towards the development of (sustainable) tourism and several relating aspects: 

• What is the role of protected areas in tourism management? 

• Improving the communication of the roles and contributions of parks towards sustainable tourism

• How to value the contribution of parks tourism towards sustainable regional development?

• What are the particularities of tourism in Alpine protected areas? 

• How to develop of a common value system of Alpine protected areas regarding tourism?

It was concluded that it would be of general interest to continue working on this topic. The participating protected areas and other ALPARC members showed great interest in such a continued collaboration. 

The complete report is available in English at the following link: http://alparc.org/alpine-resources/final-report-destination-parks 

The final report on our project Destination Parks presents the general idea of the project, introduces case studies and comes up with a conclusion summing up the general outcomes and the discussions held during the final conference.

Please scroll down to find the winning photos! 

Fotografare il Parco is an international photo contest, organized originally by Stelvio National Park (IT) in 2005 and later joined by three other National parks: Gran Paradiso (IT), Abruzzo Lazio e Molise (IT) and La Vanoise (FR). In 2019, the 13th edition of the contest took place and gathered hundreds of photographers, both professionals and amateurs, from all over the Alpine countries. The jury select ed the three winning photos from the 3,200 photo submissions from nearly 450 photographers. These photos reflected ideas of modern history by displaying the narrative vision of nature. The competition gives the occasion to protected mountain area visitors to express their passion through naturalistic photos. 

In 2020, ALPARC will be supporting this event once more. For more information: www.fotografareilparco.it  

First place: © Elisa Confortini
Second place: © Paolo Taranto
Third place: © Marco Barone

Discovering the power of witches, outsmarting evil spirts and finding magical remedies in the mountain wilderness… Mountain educators and guides used these elements of fantasy to immerse the almost 600 young participants across 40 destinations in the Alps and Carpathians in an imaginary world to reconnect them with nature as part of the 5th edition's common theme “Myth and Mountain Legends”. 

Video produced by Ouvrez l'oeil