La Rete delle Aree Protette Alpine
The “blue gold” of the Alps is limited in quantity and thus in high demand for use as drinking water, snow or electricity. At its Annual Special Conference in Bozen/Bolzano in October, CIPRA will be asking who has the right to this elixir of life and who has responsibility for it.
The glaciers, springs, streams, rivers and lakes of the Alps provide water to 170 million people. This valuable substance is also indispensable for agriculture, tourism and leisure, nature and the landscape, not to mention energy production. Interest in this scarce resource is enormous: but who gives, who takes and who decides over the water trough provided by the Alps?
It is ten years since CIPRA submitted to the Alpine countries its proposal for a water protocol. Yet today there is no common legal basis for the use and protection of water in the Alps. At its Annual Special Conference/Symposium, to be held at the European Academy in Bozen/Bolzano from 10 to 12 October in the International Year of Water Co-Operation, CIPRA will be giving centre stage to the responsibility for the blue gold of the Alps. How do municipalities co-operate in water management? How will society deal with the causes and consequences of climate change? Who decides in which streambed water or hydropower should flow? What is needed to make politicians and citizens take sustainable action? Narratives will include approaches to the Rhine, the largest river in the Alps, and accounts from Annecy, the city with the cleanest lake in Europe. There will also be field trips organised to demonstrate how South Tyrol deals with its water.
Programme and registration at: www.cipra.org/fr/
Cette importante manifestation se tiendra du 9 au 12 octobre 2013 à Saint-Martin Vésubie, dans le Mercantour, site volontairement choisi pour profiter du 20e anniversaire de présence avérée du loup en France afin de dresser un état des lieux à la fois rétrospectif et prospectif, dépassant très largement l’échelle locale. L’initiative (et le pilotage) du symposium en reviennent, ce qui est original, à l’Université.
Le titre du colloque : « Vivre ensemble avec le loup. Hier, aujourd’hui… et demain? » est à lui seul un véritable challenge. L’enjeu est de réunir à la fois des acteurs (de tous types, institutionnels et privés) et des chercheurs (historiens de toutes périodes mais aussi géographes, sociologues, ethnologues, biologistes..) dans un colloque ouvert au public et à finalité « sociale ». Il s’agit de dresser un état des lieux comparatif et de proposer des perspectives d’aménagement du statut de l’animal sauvage en France et en Europe, à la lumière des expériences du passé et de l’actuel. (…) »
The Park of Triglav is the only Slovenian national park. Spread over 84,000 hectares, it covers almost the entire territory of the Slovenian Julian Alps.
Thanks to a project Leader, co-financed by the European Union, the park Triglav has decided to launch a project similar to the "Quality Charter" of the National Park Dolomiti Bellunesi, to build a network of farmers and tourism actors bearing the mark of the park.
Source of Information: http://www.dolomitipark.it/it/dettaglio.php?id=23731 30/09/2013
The mayor of Liptovsky Mikulas (Slovak republic) reveals why he involved his town and his country in the organisation of the 2nd Nature & Sports Euro'Meet 2013. He also tells us how the Liptov region, in the heart of Europe, is wonderful for outdoor sports...
Call for experiences
The cornerstone of the Nature & Sports Euro’Meet are the theme seminars. After a proposition from the organisator, the European steering committee had chosen 4 themes seminars to build this edition :
We are launching the call for experiences and propose you to share your project, innovating policies, or exemplary actions relating to tourism and outdoor sports and invite you to present them during the 2nd Nature & Sports Euro'Meet in Liptovsky Mikulas (Slovakia, October 2013).
For further information on the 2nd Nature & Sports Euro'Meet 2013: www.nature-sports.eu
se tiendra les 2, 3 et 4 octobre 2013 dans le Parc de la Haute Vallée de Chevreuse dans le département des Yvelines.
Plus d'informations prochainement à ce lien
One key to solving the climate problem can be found in the building sector: private households in the Alps are responsible for over one third of final energy consumption.
Significantly reducing CO2 emissions and improving the quality of life must therefore be achieved through energy-efficient restoration with the use of ecological materials. The appropriate rules are also determined by the cities in which some two thirds of the Alpine population live.
The focus of the workshop being held on 19 September 2013 in Gap, France, is on the municipalities as clients for construction projects. How should they build? Where are the greatest challenges? How can a municipality persuade its residents of the need for energy-efficient restoration and building works? Some of the answers are provided by the "Alpine Towns of the Year" of Bozen/Bolzano in Italy and Sonthofen in Germany.
The GreenAlps project has been recently approved in the frame of the 5th call of the ETC Alpine Space Programme. The main aim of the project is to capitalize on the results of previous projects in order to draft a long term, sustainable and integrated environmental policy vision for the Alps. GreenAlps will go beyond classical policy recommendations by giving concrete perspectives for several key sectors, in order to explain how ecological connectivity and sustainable use of natural resources are the basis for the provision of Ecosystem services.
The Lead Partner (LP), the Alpine Network of Protected Areas, launches a tender for management support for all tasks of the overall transnational project administration, co-ordination and financial management. Find the procurements, the terms of reference and all other relevant documents below. Participation is open to all legal persons who are established in a Member State of the European Union or in a country or territory of the regions covered and/or authorised by the specific instruments applicable to the programme under which the contract is financed. Deadline for tender submissions is the 28. 10. 2013.
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Dear colleagues, dear friends in the Alpine protected areas, |
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On 18th January 2013, the „ALPARC“ association was founded with more than 30 founding members from all categories of protected areas and regional institutions. I am very pleased, and also a bit proud, about this strong interest in the now formalised structure of the Network of Alpine Protected Areas, which has already existed as an informal trans-Alpine network since 1995 also promoting the cooperation between our parks and protected areas. And it has done so across all language boundaries! |
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This has given us an own legal entity from this year onwards allowing us to act independently as a network and to represent the protected areas more strongly in the international arena. After many discussions about the statutes of the network, we can in particular progress more vigorously the international cooperation between protected areas and our partners with certainly new, interesting and pioneering projects for the Alps. |
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From the 1st January 2014, our Task Force Protected Area team, which currently still belongs to the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention, will also be grouped under the ALPARC association and then be available as the branch office of the association as the direct contact. Up until the end of 2013 there are a number of formalities to be completed with the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention, which we will do in a very constructive way. |
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The foundation for further close cooperation with the Alpine Convention has already been laid through the drafting and signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation and will now be defined in detail and implemented together with the new Secretary General of the Alpine Convention, Markus Reiterer. After all, the ALPARC network was created from its inception – on French initiative – as a contribution to implement the Alpine Convention. |
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I therefore look forward with great pleasure to a strong and constructive cooperation with the Alpine Convention, which should develop more concretely in the coming months and years giving our protected areas a more prominent place within the Convention in accordance with our slogan “Together for the Alps”. |
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I would like to take the initiative again at this point to ask all protected areas of the Alps that are not yet members of ALPARC to register with the association, in order to further increase the weight of the protected areas in the joint responsibility for the biodiversity and sustainable development of this unique area of the Alps. |
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Dr. Michael VOGEL, ALPARC President |
ALPARC obtained together with international partners a new Alpine Space Project valorizing former project results within regional and European policies.
GreenAlps shapes the framework for a sustainable and efficient European nature and biodiversity conservation policy for the Alps. It relies on two key projects covering essential issues how to best conserve alpine biodiversity by integrating the concept of an ecological continuum in European and regional policies (ECONNECT ) and how to avoid negative impacts of renewable energy production on nature (recharge.green ).
The further integration of results from these projects and other topic related projects in policy strategies is based on the valuation of ecosystem services and on a reliable definition of the carrying capacity of Alpine natural habitats. An intact alpine biodiversity is calling for long-term orientated land use planning, new ways of cooperation and a precautionary approach of other key sectors. The successful governance model of pilot areas working beyond protected sites will help to verify the practicability of the proposed strategies and their possible implementation in European policies.
Partners of this project are : ALPARC (The Alpine Network of Protected Areas, Lead Partner) (F); CIPRA International (FL); EURAC (European Academy of Bolzano) (I); FIWI (Wildlife Institute of Vienna) (A); Berchtesgaden National Park (D); Kalkalpen National Park (A); Prealpi Giulie Nature Park (I); Triglavski Narodni Park (SI).
It was confirmed on August 7 by videos trapping installed by rangers of the regional park Lessinia, which attest the presence of 2 cubs of about 4 months.
This reproduction was expected for months by the global scientific community, since these two strains of population had not been in contact for 150 years.
left: the two cubs drinking
right: the path done by Slavc to find Giulietta!
Further information here : http://www.ferus.fr/actualite/loup-premiere-reproduction-italo-slovene-dans-les-alpes-orientales
For many scientists dealing with nature protection and ecology, biodiversity, glacier research, the global change, sustainable development or long-term research in regions largely unaffected by humans, the 5th “International Symposium for Research in Protected Areas” of the Hohe Tauern National Park and the National Parks Austria was a must:
79 speakers and more than 100 posters set the scene for the conference programme under the theme “Dynamics and conservation in protected areas - challenges for research and management”, organised in parallel in numerous themed sessions.
This international scientific and protected area conference has been held every four years since 1996 and is now highly regarded within the scientific community. The interest has therefore been great to join in with an own contribution.
Around 300 delegates from over 20 nations used the opportunity to exchange ideas and network about current research results, hypotheses and project ideas directly related to protected areas in an intense and productive atmosphere of this three-day event in the Mittersill National Park centre.
Hence the symposium once again acted as a successful trans-regional platform beyond the boundaries of different expert areas, research tasks and protected areas.
A public evening event formed the closure of this year’s expert conference with the first-time presentation of the results of the research project “100 years National Park Idea in the Hohe Tauern”, and the announcement of the winners of the National Parks Austria Science Award 2013.
Situated between the high Maurienne and Tarentaise valleys, the Vanoise National Park is home to high mountains, rising to more than 3, 000 m, on which many glaciers remain. There are also valleys which open onto wide, easily accessible passes.
The variety of its rocks (calcareous, gypsum, sandstone, quartzite, shale, mica schist, gneiss…), linked to a very complex geological structure, the altitudinal range, its position at the intersection of different climates, contributes to the remarkable wealth of geology, flora and fauna of the massif.
Natural wealth
The Vanoise massif is a unique habitat not only for ibex, chamois and eagle, but also for many other animal and plant species, whether in the heart of the park or in its optimal partnership zone.
For example, among the flowering plants, certain French species grow only in the Vanoise National Park. (One example is the Gentiana utriculosa).
The protection of species and their habitats begins by the acquisition of knowledge and the implementation of plans of action. Not only does the park ranger make a great number of observations during his rounds, he is also at the origin of numerous inventory and monitoring programmes, the protocols of which he works out with the scientific council or in conjunction with the other national parks.
Thousands of data have been collected during these programmes, which also help to better understand developments.
Beyond this natural wealth, the National Park also has a rich culture, especially through the built and religious heritage (particularly chapels in high altitude pasture) and the “Road of salt and cheese” between Pralognan-la-Vanoise and Termignon.
The park is involved in the restoration and valuation of the built heritage (implementation of knowledge and use of traditional materials).
Vanoise also has a dynamic pastoral activity, driven by the Beaufort cheese, which is typical of the National Park's character. The support for this activity is in the centre of the actions of the Park.
The Vanoise National Park offers many opportunities for walks and long hikes with a network of almost 500 km of marked paths and “discovery trails” of the natural environment, some of which are accessible to those with motor disabilities. The Park also offers hikes adapted to the motor and visually impaired.
It was the first French park (created in 1963) and so this year celebrates its 50th birthday . In this special year and in addition to the celebration of this birthday, the Park also organized and hosted the Danilo Re trophy and saw the creation of the .Alparc association
It constitutes, with its neighbour the Gran Paradiso national park, one of the largest protected areas in Western Europe, with 1, 250 km2.The two parks have been twinned since 1972 and in 2012 they were given the joint renewal of the European Diploma delivered by the Council of Europe which establishes the quality of management of the protected areas.
The site http://www.parcnational-vanoise.fr gives the references of all the specialized publications and a complete description of the protected area.
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Fact Sheet |
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Name of the protected area |
Vanoise National Park |
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Name of administrative body (if different) |
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Country |
France |
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Surface area (ha) |
53,500 ha (Peripheral zone 145,000 ha) |
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Year of creation |
1963 |
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IUCN Category (-ies) |
II in heart zone and V in PZ |
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Legal status |
Public institution |
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Region(s) covered |
Rhône Alpes |
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Number of communes |
28 |
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Lowest point (altitude) in m 1, 000 |
1,280m in heart zone |
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Highest point (altitude) in m |
3,855m - (la Grande Casse) |
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Inhabited/uninhabited (if so, population) |
no |
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Surface area in forest |
5 km² in heart zone |
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Surface area in glaciers |
53 km² in heart zone |
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Surface area in pastures (including alpine pastures) |
325 km² in heart zone |
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Main types of landscape |
Pastures, rocks and glaciers (high mountains) |
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Emblematic fauna |
Ibex, chamois, bearded vulture, golden eagle, black grouse, rock ptarmigan (125 species of nesting birds) |
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Emblematic flora |
alpine flora and also some oriental , southern and arctic-alpine species, androsaces, alpine columbine, various members of the carex family of which the carex bicolor, cortusa matthioli, thistle, linnaea borealis (the only resort in France where this is found ), alpine primrose and saxifraga |
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Major tourist attraction |
In the heart area: hiking, walking, mountaineering, ski touring (spring, winter) |
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Visitor centre(s) (number, names, themes) |
Visitor centre Champagny-en-Vanoise (theme of road salt and cheese) |
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Internet Site |
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Staff |
84 |
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Access |
For the Maurienne, motorway A 43 then D1006 (1st access at La Praz for L’Orgère), then D902, from Val-Cenis - Lanslebourg to the Iseran Pass, |
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for the Tarentaise, N90 to Bourg-Saint-Maurice or Moûtiers then valleys of Méribel-les-Allues, Pralognan-la-Vanoise, Champagny-en-Vanoise, Peisey-Nancroix, D902 to Val d’Isère. |
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