The 37th edition of the Sondrio Festival (IT) is taking place from the 16 to the 26 November 2023!
The Sondrio Festival is an unique international film festival, mainly dedicated to nature films, of high scientific and cinematographic level, made in protected areas worldwide. It takes place every year since 1987 in Sondrio, Italy, in November, for two weeks.

Registrations for documentaries are now open until the 19 May 2023! The festival is open to film-makers of documentaries featuring naturalistic, ethnographic and managerial aspects of National Parks, Nature Reserves and other types of Protected Areas, classified as such by a national or local authority.

Read here for more information.

Youth at the Top event is back for its ninth edition and the registration is now open! The 2023 edition will take place on July 13 th 2023 (and the night of July 13th to 14th). On this common date, protected areas all around the Alps and the Carpathians are invited to take groups of curious kids and teens to the mountains, to experiment their surroundings in a new and creative way. Organizations, protected areas, youth associations, local professionals, and refuges are invited to take part in this international event and to plan educational activities on this year's common theme: "Forest – the Almighty".

Organizations willing to join the project should fill up the online form before April 30th.

What is Youth at the Top?

Youth at the Top is an international event that aims to help young people (re)discover nature and connect to their mountain heritage. It is organized through local events that take place simultaneously in different countries across the Alps and Carpathians. It has a highly symbolic dimension as hundreds of young people go out and experience nature on a single date through an overnight stay in the mountains. Each registered organization is invited to plan a hike, an overnight stay in the mountains, an activity on a common topic and other educational activities to help the younger generation reconnect with the mountain environment. The project leaves a lot of leeway to the participating organizations to organize local events according to their goals and capabilities.

ALPARC has been responsible for the general management and international communication of the project since its very beginning. The 9th edition of Youth at the Top is organized by ALPARC with the financial support from the German Ministry of the Environment, the Agence nationale de la cohésion des territoires of France and  the Principality of Monaco.

Click here to open the Youth at the Top website.

Click here to watch the official video.

The Platform Ecological Network of the Alpine Convention, under the initiative of the forthcoming French presidency, has mandated the French research institute Irstea to carry out a study on ecological connectivity and spatial planning throughout the Alpine arc. The resulting report, known as the PLACE report, is organized in five parts.

Download the report below.

The ECONNECT Final Report is out and is ready for download in the section below.

The Continuum Suitability Index (CSI) was successfully calculated with regional data by the region of Bavaria, Vorarlberg, Tyrol and Salzburg and integrated into the web application http://www.jecami.eu. In this application, regional analyses of the indicators are now possible and can be carried out from desired locations. The CSI tool serves as a tool to identify areas with potential and then to investigate them further.

You can download the report below (only in German available)

How successful are biodiversity policies, strategies and projects at connecting humans and nature in the Alps?

The greenAlps project surveyed how efficient and effective nature conservation instruments are from the European to the municipal level. Our ultimate goal is to stimulate pro-nature governance change in Alpine countries.

Download the greenAlps publication below to read more about this project!

ALPARC has been requested by the Ötztal Nature Park (A) for a short enquiry concerning  remaining glaciers surfaces in the alpine protected areas. Beside the fact that this statistics may be interesting for the parks, it gives the opportunity for a knowledge and management exchange on the topic if wished which can be proposed by ALPARC.
 
A survey was conducted within protected areas and parks and on glacier loss during the last decades among ALPARC members. ALPARC unified the received data and compiled it in tables. We expressly want to thank all the parks and protected areas participating on this issue with very quick responses and as well the Swiss Parks Network gathering the data for Switzerland.

The tables can be downloaded below.

We are happy to announce that an article about ALPARC CENTR'ALPS has been published in the journal eco.mont!

ALPARC is one of the initiators of the journal. The current issue contains other contributions referring to protected areas and wildlife, e.g. about governance and communication in Biosphere Reserves and about National Parks in Twitter from the German-speaking perspective.

Click here to read the article.

The full journal can be downloaded below.

Visitor management and climate change are not only popular terms in the media, but above all they represent an almost daily challenge for the work of the Alpine Park rangers and staff of protected areas, either individually or in combination.
For this the topic for the upcoming ranger seminar at the 27th Danilo Re Memorial is:

"New challenges for ranger – working with the impacts of climate change and increased tourism flows."

The Ranger seminar will take place on Friday, January 20th, 2023; 14:00 -18:00 h in Cogne.

Click here for more information, the agenda can be downloaded below.

The Association of Austrian Nature Parks (Verband der Naturparks Österreichs) has published a climate strategy for Austrian Nature Parks!

Several climate-relevant adaption and mitigation strategies are addressed such as the definition of four fields of activity - based on the Austrian Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change - in which there are promising opportunities for implementation:

- Ecosystems and Biodiversity

- Tourism

- Agriculture" and "Forestry

- "Transport infrastructure and mobility".

The activity field "Biodiversity and Ecosystems" is of particular importance, as nature parks can contribute a high level of competence in this thematic area. Furthermore, recommendations were made for measures to be taken by the nature parks and their associations and the Association of Nature Parks of Austria (VNÖ).

Below you can download the strategy in German version.

The HEALPS2 Action Plan has been released! It covers several subjects such as the Alps as a healing source, natural health sources in the Alps and Policy Recommendations!

This Action Plan’s core mission is to devise actionable strategies for the development of a nature-based health tourism ecosystem to improve Quality of Life and Quality of Region in the Alpine Space.

You can download the report via this link or in the download area.

Topics such as health and well-being, strengthening the immune system, or healthy routines are all in vogue. We are also witnessing an explosion of lifestyle diseases such as stress, noise and stimulus overload or lack of exercise that stem from our increasingly urban way of life.

It can be assumed that these tendencies will further intensify in coming years, meaning that concentrating on the target group of those seeking better health is a forward-thinking decision for Alpine destinations. But how can municipalities and regions best take this path?

ALPARC is working as a project partner on this question in the HEALPS 2 project with 10 partners from all over the Alpine region.

Thanks to the research of all partners there is medical evidence of the good feeling after a long hike, or that the Krimml Waterfalls are a state-approved healing resource for asthma. Together with pilot regions from all over the Alpine region, HEALPS 2 has developed a planning tool that can be used to analyze and evaluate regions. Take a look at the latest project deliverables:

- Training Material on Innovation Model and Tactical Toolset

- Alpine health resources