Stop, you cannot pass!

A huge wall blocks the path of the pedestrians at the place Hviezdoslavovo namestie, in the center of Bratislava. After some Alpine towns , also one Carpathian city can see one of its street blocked by a huge obstacle. With the action “the Wall”, the CNPA and ALPARC want to show how important are the ecological connections for animal and plant species in the Carpathian area. 

The Wall is blocking the path!
At the occasion of the 3rd Conference of Parties to the Carpathian Convention (COP3), the 13 meters long and 3 meters high wall was raised for two days in front of the hotel Carlton in center of Bratislava (SK). Mr. József Nagy (Slovak Minister of Environment) and Mr. Mircea Verghelet (president of the CNPA) explained during the official opening ceremony the reasons and objectives of this structure.
The following day, the Wall was the center of interest of the pedestrians on one of the most frequented places in Bratislava. Surprised inhabitants of the Slovak capital, scholars and tourists asked for some explanations about the ecological networks.

(Un)successful COP3

The highlight of the COP3 was the signature of two protocols of the convention: “Protocol on Sustainable Forest Management to the Carpathian Convention” and “Protocol on Sustainable Tourism to the Carpathian Convention”. Nevertheless, the permanent arrangements for the secretariat of the Carpathian Convention and for the CNPA coordination unit, the most pressing decisions, are, once again, pushed away to the following COPs…

For more informations: www.carpathianparks.org

 The Chapter "Evaluating Management Effectiveness of National Parks as a Contribution to Good Governance and Social Learning" is available online at this link (or see below).

About the authors:

Michael Getzner
Center of Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy,
Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria

Michael Jungmeier
ECO Institute of Ecology, Klagenfurt, Austria

Bernd Pfleger
Experience Wilderness, Enns, Austria

Resources linked to the article

 With the upcoming snow the seasonal discussions on disturbance of wildlife by winter outdoor activities will raise again. The usual appeals and bidding for an adapted practice of these activities will only be successful if the background and reasons for them are known and understood.

It is for that aim that WILDLIFE SWISS (WILDTIER SCHWEIZ) has developed a board game offering the players the possibility to take the role of wild animals and live the conditions of mountain winter from their point of view.

Press release (D): see below.  

Wilderness areas are almost virgin spaces, without any human touch.

 To permit a transmission to the future generations of entirely intact natural spaces, we have to conserve them and, as far as possible, to restore areas of savage nature.

In the frame of the partnership “together for biodiversity”, the Austrian office of forests and WWF realized an enquiry of experts at this subject, containing ecological as well as social and politic aspects.  

What municipalities can do for hermits and fire salamanders

The Alps possess an especially large and valuable diversity of plants and animals; this can only continue if habitats are preserved and remain connected to one another. Municipalities can contribute to this in many ways: CIPRA has produced a short film for municipal representatives showing how to make use of these opportunities.

The film “For hermits and fire salamanders – How municipalities connect habitats in the Alps” gives examples of how municipalities can contribute to maintaining the natural diversity of the Alps. Representatives from the Isère département in France, the Engadin in Switzerland and South Tyrol explain how they all contribute to connecting habitats. Each emphasises that it is not just nature that profits, but also people.

“I think the film is very relevant and clearly shows Alpine municipalities that taking account of landscapes and biodiversity improves their quality of life and sustainable development. The film successfully gets this core message across”, states Antonio Chiadò, vice-chairman of the “Alliance in the Alps” network of municipalities.

The 15-minute film is available in English, French, German, Italian and Slovenian as a free DVD or internet download. CIPRA will also be showing the film over the coming months to its target audience of municipal representatives at various events, including at the locations where the film was made.

The film forms part of the Ecological Continuum Initiative under which CIPRA, together with ALPARC (Alpine Network of Protected Areas) and ISCAR (International Scientific Committee for Alpine Research), is supporting municipalities and other players in their efforts to improve ecological networks in the Alps.

You can download the press release, photographs in high resoluction, the film or the trailor at the following link:
www.cipra.org/en/press/press-releases

Markus REITERER started office as the new Secretary General of the Alpine Convention on 1st July 2013 at the headquarters of the Permanent Secretariat in Innsbruck.

He replaces Marco ONIDA who had held the post since 2007. 

 45 years of age, a lawyer, diplomat and fine connoisseur of the Alps, Markus Reiterer is the first Austrian to take this position.

Brief overview of his professional career:

After his studies of law, he worked at the Institute of International Law and International Relationships of the University of Vienna. He joined the Austrian Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he became the Head of Environmental Law in 2002.

In 2005 he took the position of Deputy Permanent Representative of Austria to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. At the end of 2008, he was entrusted with heading up the political department of the Austrian embassy in Washington. From December 2011, he worked at the cabinet of the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). 

"It is important to me to contribute on the comprehension and valorisation of nature and culture, life and economy in the Alps and to the sustainable development of the Alps," Reiterer says. The designated Secretary-General wants to enhance "team - building", cooperation and solidarity between the Permanent Secretariat, the Alpine states and the observer organisations. (cf Alpmedia ).

Nous lui souhaitons du succès pour ce nouveau challenge ! 

 The journal “eco.mont - Journal of Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management” has been listed in the Thomson Reuters Science Citation Index Expanded since 2012 and received an Impact Factor for the first time in 2013.

This Impact Factor indicates the average number of quotations from an article in a particular journal over a period of two years. For eco.mont this means an important step to increasing the journal’s visibility especially in the world of research. 

 The Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention organizes the second "Young scientists Award".

Please find more information in the press release below as well as under following link . 

eco.mont – Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management

publishes peer-reviewed articles on research within protected mountain areas and its potential interest for protected area management. Each issue also includes reports on management issues and showcases one protected area. 

eco.mont Vol. 5 No. 2 - December 2013

Editorial by Christoph Stadel

«This issue of eco.mont truly reflects the fact that protected areas are an important topic of international concern, are researched by scholars of different academic disciplines, and are also of great interest for many practitioners. While protected areas have been established in different terrestrial and maritime zones, they are particularly important in mountain regions, given their ecological and anthropogenic variety and their susceptibility to fragility and vulnerability. Different types of protected areas in mountains can be distinguished, ranging from small pockets of protected ecological niches to provincial and national parks, biosphere reserves, buffer zones, and even transnational protection corridors…»

please find the content at this link

eco.mont Vol. 6 No. 1 - January 2014

Editorial by Günter Köck

« The Alps, or rather the Hohe Tauern part of them, are at the heart of this issue. This is no coincidence, as in June 2013 the Hohe Tauern National Park Centre in Mittersill hosted the 5th Symposium for Research in Protected Areas, which attracted top scientists from 20 different nations. More than 150 researchers presented results of their work there and have elaborated some of these for the current issue. So it is only natural that Kristina Bauch and Ferdinand Lainer, both experts from Hohe Tauern National Park, should introduce ‘their’ park as the Case in Point. They demonstrate that research in the national park has always been a major concern and will continue to be so. In addition, Kupper et al. trace the long and stony path from the first conservation ideas to the implementation of Hohe Tauern National Park in 1995. This article summarizes Kupper et al.’s excellent book Geschichte des Nationalparks Hohe Tauern (Kupper & Wöbse 2013)…»

please find the content at this link

 The Massif des Bauges, natural regional park since 1995, covers between 250 and 2217m and an area of 856 km². The park is divided in the two departments Savoy (46 municipalities) and the Haute-Savoie (18 municipalities). The 64 municipalities in the Park hosts 70 000 inhabitants (in 2008) and are part of the department Rhône-Alpes. There are six towns, which are also members of the Parks joint union, and in total 400 000 people are living in the park.

A wide variety of natural habitats

Forest covers 58% of the parks territory and provides the resource wood which is very important for the local economy. Grasslands, which are represented in 30 % in the parks area, are split in hayfields and pastures.  

 A more detailed analysis of the habitats shows a wide variety, which includes dry grassland in the south-west, wetlands in the lower valleys and rock and scree habitats in the highlands. An exemplar of this diversity is maintained through the Parks’ NATURA 2000 network (7 areas cover 17 000 ha).

Thanks to the landscape diversity, there is also a rich flora diversity to find in the park. 1600 species were identified in the Parks territory, which means a 1/5 of the French flora. Some of them are strictly protected like the lady’s-slipper orchid (Cypripedium calceolus) and the Alpine Sea Holly (Eryngium alpinu). Next to the flora, the fauna is also very varied. The Park observed 117 species nesting in the territory, including many endangered species: golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) and the Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix). A study of the National Office for Hunting and Wildlife (ONCFS) found out that the chamois is the most symbolic large mammals of the park. In the core area of the natural regional park, the reserve of national hunting and wildlife of the Bauges, the chamois, mountain sheep, grouse and many other animals are protected in a territory of 5200 ha forest and alpine meadows. Since 2003 the park is managing this part of the region in collaboration with the National Forest and National Office for Hunting and Wildlife.  

The missions of the Park

For a better way to accommodate the public and the same moment to preserve and reveal the heritage and landscapes while contributing to a sustainable development of this exceptional area, which is surrounded by six cities, the Park developed a charter. The charta includes the following main axes and the working program:

• sustainable urban planning – the park ensures the compatibility of urban planning documents with the plan of the park
• support of local economy activities with especially local products (agriculture and forest in particular)
• the knowledge, protection and management of the natural and cultural heritage

• support of all forms of sustainable tourism, which are developed in respect of the resources
• environmental education: the park is an active member of the Reema and the Alparc working group « environmental alpin education », which means concretly having exchanges on an international level. The park has also participated at the ViViAlp project , an educative tool (a 3dimensional flight over the Alpine protected areas on a big screen) for understanding, discovering and learning something about the Alps.
• An experimentation like the agri-environmental measure to accountability for results "prairie flowers " (it is the Regional Park Bauges, who, inspired by Swiss and German initiatives, has initiated this program in France, now extended to the entire country.)

GEOPARK, a label given by the UNESCO

In September 2011, the natural regional park Massif des Bauges got the label Geopark . The global network of Geoparks aims to promote the Earth heritage, especially the geological one, to the public, and to support the local sustainable development of territories in form of geotourism. Nowadays there are 50 Geoparks in Europe – 4 of them in France.
On international level the park develops partnerships with the Luberon Geopark (France) and the Geopark d’Arouca (Portugal) concerning a sustainable resource tourism , which is financed by the European LEADER program. Another convention was signed with the Geopark de Leye Fengshan (as well for tourism projects) and the Altai Mountains in Russia.  

Park's identity card

 ALPARC is pleased to invite you to present your latest protected areas research at the next international Symposium for Research in Protected Areas, 10-12 June 2013.

This event aims at providing researchers and staff of conservation organizations with an opportunity to exchange valuable information, new ideas as well as common interests and to discuss a variety of current research and management issues in protected areas.

The symposium will take place at the Hohe Tauern National Park Center in Mittersill, Salzburg, Austria.

The Concept

Six of Austria’s most ecologically valuable regions have been designated as national parks. They reflect the great diversity of this central European country: high mountains, forests, water and riparian marshes and steppes. Austria is part of two biogeographic regions: the alpine and the continental, and most of the Austrian national parks are part of two important regional networks: ALPARC (Alpine Network of Protected Areas) and DanubePARKS (The Danube River Network of Protected Areas ). 

In close cooperation with these regional networks for protected areas, and further supported by scientific institutions - ISCAR (International Scientific Committee on Research in the Alps), IGF (Mountain Research: Man and Environment, an Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW )) and IAD (International Association for Danube Research) - we are looking for input from researchers or research groups working on issues related to protected areas across the entire geographic region from the Western Alps to the Danube Delta, from the plains to the highest peaks in Europe, from glacier-fed torrents to one of the world’s biggest wetlands.

Guiding Theme

Dynamics and conservation in protected areas - challenges for research and management.

At the 2013 conference itself, we would like to focus attention on:

Dynamics and conservation in protected areas under conditions of global change and the need to protect diversity.

- Do protected areas achieve the objectives defined for the protection of processes, functions and diversity and where are the limits?
- What are currently the most relevant research priorities, research questions, methods and recent results – regional and supra-regional, short and long term?
- Long-term ecosystem research: What do we know from science and practice?
- Where do protected areas, their regions and their networks currently stand regarding research and management?
We invite you to contribute to our Symposium by giving a talk or presenting a poster.

The call is open until 12 October 2012 for any topic that relates to the guiding theme.

Call for Papers

If you are interested in presenting your current research at the symposium, we kindly ask you to bear in mind the following information and timetable:
- Conference language: English only
- 12 October 2012 – Deadline for submitting an application with a short description of your presentation (max. 1.800 characters, incl. spaces) and a short Curriculum Vitae. Please use the attached or the online registration form: www.hohetauern.at/symposium2013 (available from 23. July 2012).
- 14 December 2012 – Announcement of accepted contributions (talk and/or poster/-s) and approved thematic sessions by the Scientific Board.
- January 2013 – Announcement of the full programme set by the Scientific Board.
- 25 February 2013 – Deadline for submitting your abstract for the conference proceedings. Detailled information will follow after acceptance.

Registration / Submission of papers

Secretary of the Conference
Hohe Tauern National Park
Gerlos Straße 18/2
A 5730 Mittersill
e-mail: nationalpark@salzburg.gv.at
phone: +43 (0)6562 40849
Further information, registration form and submission form:
www.hohetauern.at