Le Réseau Alpin des Espaces Protégés
The reintroduction of the lynx into Austria is being undermined. Recently the carcass of a dead lynx was found at a taxidermist’s and the Hunting Federation is opposed to any further introduction.
Within the framework of lynx reintroduction in Austria, the adult male Juro had been captured in Switzerland to be released in the Kalkalpen National Park in December 2011, where he would be reunited with Freia, a female also originally from Switzerland.
Austria is home to very few lynx which reproduce only in the Mühlviertel, an area situated in the north of the country. The Kalkalpen National Park therefore plays a key role in the reintroduction of this feline into the Alps: if the park’s lynx breed in the near future it would allow a genetic exchange between the lynx of the Murau in Styria and those of the Mühlviertel.
The two felines are equipped with tracking collars to allow their movements to be followed. At this link you will find their movements mapped out: for Juro, there have been no new data since June 2013. The males Klaus and Pankraz as well as Jugo, the son of Juro and Freia, have also disappeared. The females Kora, Skadi and Freia have only been able to mate with their own offspring, which puts the genetic diversity of this population at risk. Freia was photographed in January 2015 with 2 young lynx.
Articles in the Austrian newspaper “Kurier” of 14/04/2015, as well as in the “Krone” of 17/04/2015 mention the discoveries made by crime police at a taxidermist’s, where they found the frozen carcass of a lynx. The taxidermist stated that the trophy had been brought in for preparation by a keen hunter whose defence is that he mistook it for a fox …
Erich Mayrhofer, director of the Kalkalpen National Park has declared that this news exceeds his greatest fears. He is worried that this investigation will not be the last: genetic tests will reveal the identity of the Lynx. Despite the condemnation of this act by the assistant director of the Hunting Federation, the organisation is opposed to the introduction of another male. The head of the environmental crime team, Othmar Coser, finds himself facing a “wall of silence” on the part of the hunters …
See also the European Wilderness Society article at this link
Source: Kalkalpen National Park Newsletter at this link
ALPARC and the Alpine Protected Areas will be represented at the Expo Milano 2015 with projections of the Multivision “For the Alps”.
The French Pavilion presents the Multivision on May the 7th.
The winners of the 10th international competition “Fotografare il parco” have been announced. This contest was organized by the Stelvio National Park (IT), the Gran Paradiso National Park (IT), Abruzzo, Latinum and Molise National Park (IT) and by the French National Park Vanoise in collaboration with Swarovski Optik Italia. Once again, the contest registered a great participation of many amateurs as well as professional photographers. More than 400 participants sent about 3200 pictures coming from Italy, France and other European countries. You can see the winners and the prizes in the file enclosed.
9. Sur une page d’un évènement, quand on met une « image de l’élément », cela se superpose au tableau du « Champs supplementaire » , si on va sur la page le tableu résulte moche …. Comment faire pour ammeliorer cet aspects en gardant « l’image élément » et sans mettre « image dans le corps du texte » ?
La Région Rhône-Alpes, l’Etat de Genève et leurs partenaires ont le plaisir de vous annoncer la tenue d’un colloque international consacré aux corridors biologiques les lundi et mardi 30 et 31 mars 2015 à Divonne-les-Bains (F) ! L’Esplanade du Lac vous accueillera pour deux jours d’échanges, de visites et de débats sur le thème :
Quand la nature dépasse (enfin) les bornes !
Biodiversité et territoire : 10 ans de mises en cohérence
La Région Rhône-Alpes, l’Etat de Genève et leurs partenaires ont le plaisir de vous annoncer la tenue d’un colloque international consacré aux corridors biologiques les lundi et mardi 30 et 31 mars 2015 à Divonne-les-Bains (F) ! L’Esplanade du Lac vous accueillera pour deux jours d’échanges, de visites et de débats sur le thème :
Quand la nature dépasse (enfin) les bornes !
Biodiversité et territoire : 10 ans de mises en cohérence
La participation au colloque est gratuite. Les inscriptions sont obligatoires et seront ouvertes à partir de mi-novembre 2014. Davantage d’informations à venir.
Informations pratiques et inscriptions sur www.colloque-corridors.org.
Pensez à réserver dès maintenant ces deux dates !
Avec nos meilleures salutations,
Luisa Alzate et Aline Blaser
Région Rhône-Alpes et Etat de Genève
Pensez à réserver dès maintenant les 30 et 31 mars 2015 !
Informations pratiques et inscriptions (à partir de mi-novembre 2014) sur :
www.colloque-corridors.org
All over the Alps, people are disturbed by the lack of young people in the mountains, notably in summer. Are the mountains boring? Here, there and everywhere people are beginning to realise that our children and our young people are short of … nature. Has contact with nature become a waste of time?
Omnipresent screens, hectic lifestyles, no more room to simply… go out. Yes, out, in the open air, in woods or beside a stream. Sit in a meadow, listen, smell, observe. And then walk, climb, up the slope and maybe reach the summit?
So, along with many other activities and projects, we have together imagined an original way to take young people of the Alps to experience the mountains, spend a night up there, and rediscover the power of being a group and the values of citizenship and solidarity. A collective operation rich in symbolism: Youth at the Top !
For, from France to Slovenia, the Alpine protected areas are very keen to recreate or strengthen the link between mountain nature and young people from here and elsewhere. Because living in the Alps does not necessarily mean knowing the region and travelling all over it. Because mountaineering means education. Because the young people of our areas are also our discussion partners and tomorrow’s players, and also because it is quite simply vital for every human being to have regular contact with nature.
It is a project led by ALPARC, in partnership with Educ’Alpes for the French Alps, which will mobilise groups of young people at a common annual date, in an active, civic process, with a symbolic and imaginative approach.
Our proposal to you is to organise together, on the same day every year, the same night, meetings in emblematic places (refuges, bivouacs, passes, summits) in the mountains in all the Alpine countries. The objective: to take groups of young people up there to share a unique experience, and, more widely speaking, to reach in this way a number of teaching objectives linked to mountain education. But please note, this is not an “educational” day in the classic meaning of the word, but one having the aim to “let someone experience”, a collective adventure in the mountains… In addition, there will be a citizen action (linked to the park or refuge, for example ) and a shared artistic activity (photographic work, plays of light…). This “simultaneous” artistic work by the groups taking part will then fuel a collective work of restitution on an Alpine scale.
The international working group developing the project has chosen the 3rd Thursday in July as common date, a compromise between the highly varying local situations from one end of the Alpine arc to the other. For the 2015 ‘test’ edition, it will be Thursday 16th July. The objective is to then renew the operation every year on a larger scale. (Fund seeking is ongoing).
We invite you to join this major collective project, which is both simple and ambitious, aimed at young people. The operation is seen as flexible and adaptable: each protected area taking part in it can adapt the size and the local event to its own means and the local context. The 2015 edition will be a first test operation which will be the object of an assessment in order to perpetuate it in the years to come.
If you want to take part in this adventure, fill in the attached entry form, which does not commit you to anything at this stage, but which will allow us to identify potential events throughout the Alps and to include you in the working group for the preparatory phase. The entry form should be sent to ALPARC before 15th March 2015. More details in the project file attached.
ALPARC & EDUC’ALPES
The “Mountain Environment Education” working group
Contact : email
The third ALPARC General Assembly was held on 23rd January 2015 in St. Jakob in Defereggental, in the Hohe Tauern National Park (Austria). More than 50% of the Network’s members were present. The General Assembly validated the official reports of the president, treasurer and director for 2014 and the 2014-2015 ALPARC programme.
Moreover, the 2014 activities report can be downloaded at this link.
ALPARC’s strategic orientations are as follows:
During the General Assembly the communications activities planned to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ALPARC network were also announced.
During the General Assembly, the General Secretary of the Alpine Convention, Markus Reiterer, highlighted the close relationship between ALPARC and the Alpine Convention. The cooperation between these two structures is set out in the “Cooperation Memorandum”.
ALPARC and the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention work together at a communications level to promote the Convention or within some working groups or platforms dealing with themes that also concern the protected areas.
A new working programme for 2016-2017 will soon be prepared. ALPARC invites all the members of the network to submit their propositions to the members of the ALPARC Bureau as a contribution to a first version of the text.
Download the final publications.
From September 2013 to November 2014, ALPARC was the lead partner of the European greenAlps project, with the objective of examining the effectiveness of nature protection measures, from the European level to the level of individual communities, in order to encourage a change of governance so that more consideration will be given to nature in the policies of the Alpine countries.
A study of the European policy for the preservation of biological diversity together with the analysis of the principal results of a whole series of European projects has made possible the formulation of political recommendations, as well as recommendations aimed at those in charge of the Espace Alpin programme in order
to improve the impact of future projects in favour of biodiversity.
Final publications greenAlps project:
This section includes all the PowerPoint (pdf format) presentations and video shown during the theme based seminar, "Reintroduction and (natural) returns of species, local population and conflicts: the ranger’s role?" that took place during the "20th Memorial Danilo Re", 23rd January 2015, Sankt Jakob im Defereggental, Hohe Tauern National Park.
Please note the PPT presentation from Berchtesgaden National Park is not available.
The special brochure “Compete to protect the Alps: 20 editions of Memorial Danilo Re”, (printed version, English only) has been published by ALPARC and the Danilo Re Steering Committee under the coordination of Martin Solar (ALPARC general Secretar).
The brochure, which is a collection of photographs and testimonies, aims to revive the memories and superlatives of all former events of the “Memorial”.
If you are interest in the publication and you would like to receive one or more copy please contact the ALPARC team at: info@alparc.org
Source: Alpine protected areas database, ALPARC
ALPARC lays out the most up to date map from its Alpine protected areas data base, based on the collection of geographic data from all over the Alps.
