We're pleased to announce that the registration deadline for the WELCOME closing event has been extended to Sunday 16 March : Register here.

The closing event of the WELCOME project will take place on 27-28 March 2025 at the House of the Mountains in Berchtesgaden!

The event will present and discuss the results of the project's three core themes: an exchange about existing visitor offers of protected areas and their future perspectives, a presentation of emerging trends in Alpine protected area tourism, as well as innovative concepts for new activities, and a reflexion about the limits of visitor growth in natural sensitive areas.

Participation is free of charge and open to all that are interested. Travel and accomodation costs are covered individually by each participant.

We Thank the National Park Berchtesgaden for hosting the event!

Click here to find out more about the event and to download the draft agenda.

The project is co-funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV).

The closing event of the WELCOME project will take place on 27-28 March 2025 at the House of the Mountains in Berchtesgaden!

The event will present and discuss the results of the project's three core themes: an exchange about existing visitor offers of protected areas and their future perspectives, a presentation of emerging trends in Alpine protected area tourism, as well as innovative concepts for new activities, and a reflexion about the limits of visitor growth in natural sensitive areas.

Participation is free of charge and open to all that are interested. Travel and accomodation costs are covered individually by each participant. 

We thank the National Park Berchtesgaden for hosting the event!

Click here to find out more about the event and to download the draft agenda.

The project is co-funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV).

The 10^th edition of Youth at the Top was a complete success, bringing together around 350 young people in almost thirty locations in the Alps and the Carpathians on 18th and 19th July. The participants focused on the common theme "Alpine Flowers and Pollinating Insects".

A video is now available both on our website and on YouTube, showing the various activities of participants from all over the Alps in the Youth at the Top event 2024.

The next edition of Youth at the Top will take place on 17 July 2025 (or on another day during the week of 14-20 July) and will be a time of learning and discovery for young people around the common theme of "Our footprints in the Alps".

Click here for more information on Youth at the Top 2025!

The year 2025 began on a high note for the Alpine protected areas community with the 29th Danilo Re Memorial. This edition, perfectly organized by the Swiss National Park (CH) in collaboration with ALPARC, was a great success, marked by enthusiastic participation of the teams and memorable times spent together.

The Opening Day
The event kicked off on Thursday, January 16th, with the traditional and well-attended parade of teams. This year’s parade featured a special performance by the choir Cor dal Parc, setting a festive tone for the celebrations. Park delegations paraded through the picturesque streets of Scuol, culminating at the municipal house, where official greetings were delivered by local authorities and the ALPARC President Peter Oggier.

A particularly touching moment followed as Cor dal Parc performed Signore delle Cime in memory of Mauro Fissore, a colleague and friend who sadly passed away in 2024.

The evening continued with the popular Alpine Buffet at the municipal house. This annual tradition gave participants the chance to taste regional food from across the Alps while enjoying music, spontaneous dancing, and great friendship.

The General Assembly
Friday was an important day highlighted by the ALPARC General Assembly and a seminar for rangers. The morning session was dedicated to the General Assembly, the most important meeting of the year for the association. Highlights included the presentation of ALPARC's 2024 Activity Report and constructive discussions that confirmed the cohesion of ALPARC members. Key decisions, including the election of a new Board of Directors, were made with unanimous support.

In the afternoon, the Ranger Seminar provided an opportunity for park rangers to share experiences and initiatives from their respective protected areas. With approximately 190 participants, the seminar fostered a dynamic exchange of ideas, showcasing innovative solutions and inspiring collaboration for the management of Alpine protected areas.

The Trophy
Saturday was dedicated to the exciting Danilo Re Trophy competition, in which 48 teams competed in four disciplines: ski mountaineering, giant slalom, cross-country skiing and shooting. Blessed with excellent weather and the warm hospitality of the Swiss National Park, the day was a celebration of sportsmanship and Alpine culture. The evening culminated in a gala dinner in a spectacular high-altitude venue. The festive atmosphere was enhanced by the various award ceremonies for the winning athletes and parks, live music and dancing.

We congratulate the overall winner of the sports competitions: Aree Protette delle Alpi Marittime! 
To see all of the individual and team rankings of the competition, click here.

At the end of the event, the trophy flag was ceremoniously handed over by the Swiss National Park (CH) to the Triglav National Park (SI), host of the 2026 edition. The entire community looks forward to another successful gathering next year, continuing the valuable heritage of the Danilo Re Memorial.

More information about the events as well as a photo gallery of our colleagues from the Swiss National Park are available on the Danilo Re Website. 

Photo 1 & 4: ©Parc Naziunal Svizzer -Fadri Wehrli
Photo 2 & 3: ©ALPARC - Guido Plassmann

From November 16th-17th, the Community Network Alliance in the Alps and CIPRA International organise a tourism conference in Prien am Chiemsee (DE). At the start of the programme, Prof. Dominik Siegrist (University of Applied Sciences, Rapperswil) will explain the current and future challenges facing destinations and their populations. In concrete terms, the focus will be on how climate change, for example, is affecting outdoor sports in addition to current crisis management. The second part of the conference will be devoted to the question of what the outdoor experience could look like as a basis for sustainable tourism in the Alps in the future. Current measures as well as different approaches from the entire Alpine region will be presented, which break new ground in sustainable tourism development. Finally, Prof. Christian Baumgartner (FH Graubünden) will present and discuss a model that can help to tackle the challenges of sustainable tourism in the Alpine region in a comprehensive and integrative manner at local and regional level.

For more information, please click here or download the conference ‘save the date’ available in French, Italian, German and Slovenian.

2020 is an important year for ALPARC: the association is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Nothing could have been better to start this year than celebrating the 25th edition of the Danilo Re Memorial. 

The opening day

The Memorial opened on Thursday night, the 16th of January, with the greetings from representatives of local, national and international institutions acting in the Alpine context. In particular, apart from the traditional speech by ALPARC’s President, Peter Oggier, the Mayor of Kaprun, Manfred Gaßner, and the director of the ski lifts of Kitzsteinhorn, Norbert Karlsböck, together with the director of the National Park Hohe Tauern - Salzburg, Urban Wolfgang, took the floor to welcome all park rangers and the managers of Alpine Protected Areas in Kaprun’s beautiful scenery and its magnificent castle. Indeed, this year’s memorial was hosted by the Nationalpark Hohe Tauern - Salzburg whose headquarter is in Mittersill. 

The greetings continued with speeches from the newly elected General Secretary of the Alpine Convention, Alenka Smerkolj, Maria Hutter, the councilor for the Salzburg Region and Valerie Zacherl-Draxler, the Head of the Department of National Parks and Nature Conservation at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism who we were honored to welcome in this beautiful Alpine event. 

The evening closed with the presentation of the competing teams and the traditional Alpine buffet, that, like every year, gives the participants an opportunity to exchange and taste typical food from all around the Alps.

ALPARC General Assembly and Ranger Seminar 

On Friday, the General Assembly of ALPARC and the rangers’ seminar took place. The morning was dedicated to the most important meeting of the year for the association. After a presentation of ALPARC’s 2019 Activity Report, the decisions for the general functioning of the association were taken in the general unanimity. 

In the afternoon, the seminar “Alpine Rangers and Climate change - where the effects of global warming affect the daily work of alpine protected areas rangers” allowed the participants to gain insight on how to deal with climate change as protected area actors. 

The Trophy

The 36 teams (for a total 144 athletes) competed for the Danilo Re Trophy during a snowy Saturday. Ski mountaineering, giant slalom, cross-country skiing and target shooting are the disciplines in which Alpine rangers and other people working for protected areas competed. 

Here the results of the competition:

-Female teams: 1. Parc Naziunal Svizzer; 2. Aree Protette Alpi Marittime i; 3. Nationalpark Hohe Tauern Salzburg 

-Male teams: 1. Parco Nazionale Gran Paradiso; 2. Nationalpark Hohe Tauern - Salzburg; 3. Nationalpark Hohe Tauern - Tirol.

The hosting park managed to have three teams on the podium, a great success for them. The Swiss National Park triumphed in the female teams’ competition while, on the other hand, the male team from the Gran Paradiso National Park reached the highest step of the podium, maintaining their position over the previous editions.

To close the Memorial, some words were given on the rangers that gave their life in the accomplishment of their tasks and a beautiful awards ceremony took place. We didn’t miss this opportunity for music and dancing in a warm climate of friendship and togetherness. 

More from the event: https://www.facebook.com/MemorialTrofeoDaniloRe/

In the territory of the southern French Alps, in particular under the authority of “Pays du Grand Briançonnais”, an organisation regrouping towns and villages in the region around Briançon and the managers of the Regional Nature Park of Queyras, are actively contributing to the drafting of a local Climate Plan. 

The PCAET, Climate-Air-Energy-Territorial Planning, is going to be approved in early 2020. It has some ambitious goals that aim at aligning local dimensions to national and international objectives developed under the framework of the Ecological Transition (FR) and Agenda2030 (EU) climate plans. 

Local goals appear to be in some cases even more ambitious than those developed at the higher levels. Among them the following objectives that are planned to be reached by 2030:  

• Reduce by 20% energy consumption in the territory from the 2012 levels;

• Reduce by 40% greenhouse gas emissions from the 1990 levels;

• Develop renewable energy production in order to reach the amount of 32% of the total final consumption (compared to the objective of 27% at the EU level);

• Reduce the vulnerability of the territory to the effects of climate change and improve its resiliency.

Depending on their protection level, parks have a fundamental role to play in the protection of nature and the sustainable development of local production and exploitation of natural resources. In particular, parks are called to work on the adaptation to climate change not only of the fauna and the flora, but also of nature-based activities carried out in protected areas. Indeed, tourism, forestry and agriculture being central activities for Alpine communities, are deeply affected by climate change that is challenging the way of managing water, growing crops and dealing with natural hazards.

ALPARC is officially taking part to the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2021 in Marseille (FR), next January 7th - 15th, in cooperation with the Swiss National Park.
The congress has been postponed from June 2020 to January 2021 due to the Corona crisis.

After the first selection phase, the IUCN responded to our application asking us to join forces with the Swiss National Park in our activities during the Congress. This gives us the opportunity to closely cooperate with the oldest national park in the Alps and central Europe towards the common goal of fostering intra-generational discussions.

In fact, the concept consists in fostering a dialogue between young professionals and other experts on the role of protected areas in the mitigation of the effects of climate change.  In this context young professionals from all over the Alps will be invited to a preparatory workshop in Munich in October 2020.

Ecological connectivity, biodiversity conservation and the safeguard of mountainous ecosystem services in view of climate change will be the central topics of the slot that ALPARC will have during the IUCN World Conservation Congress. For this objective, the network will not only collaborate with various protected areas but also other stakeholders, such as the EUSALP action group 7, in order to recommend solutions to the current challenges. 

More information and the exact date of the workshop will follow soon.

2020 is here and brings with it the beginning of a new year and some good news. It is with great excitement that ALPARC invites you to take part to the 6th edition of Youth at the Top that will be held from July 16th – 17th, 2020 under the common theme ‘Alpine Fauna and Climate Change’. Keep an eye out for registrations which will open sometime in March. 

After the successful conclusion of the 5th edition of Youth at the Top under the theme 'Myth and Mountain Legends', ALPARC is happy to share the videos that have were produced during the project. 

For this edition, ALPARC decided to produce 8 videos: the YAT 2019 Official Video, which sums up all the events that took place along the Alps and the Carpathians; and 7 “Best of” videos containing the highlights of the events in each country. The videos are available in ALPARC’s resource library, on the Youth at the Top website and on YouTube .

Enjoy the videos and we’re looking forward to seeing you next summer for another adventure in the mountains. 

What’s the Alpine School?

The Alpine school is a label that schools interested in an innovative educational approach can adopt after fulfilling certain criteria. These criteria are strongly linked to the approach of education for sustainable development, adapted to mountain specificities. In order to explain the Alpine School and its theoretical background, ALPARC elaborated a promotional video available in 5 languages. 

The choice of the doodling style allowed for flexibility and schematisation that grasped the very nature of the approach of the Alpine School. A lot of attention was paid to details, and inspiration was taken directly from the activities carried out in the Pilot schools and the protected areas working with them. The result is a 2-minute representation of the Alpine School, its main characteristics and objectives. In English and the four Alpine languages, the video is the perfect way to get a first general overview of the Alpine School. The ‘premiere’ of the video took place in the cinema Pathé Chambery (FR) during the project’s final conference in October 2019. The video is available here: What’s the Alpine School?

A Brand-new Website Dedicated to the Alpine School

Even though the YOUrALPS project, which provided the framework for the Alpine School, ended in October, some motivated partners decided to put one last effort into the Alpine School, creating a mini website for it; one of the main outputs of the project. 

Here you can see the result. A simple, intuitive and captivating website presenting the Alpine School, its theoretical basis, its characteristics and all the materials that have been developed around it. The website contains a lot of freely accessible guides to implement outdoor activities within the model of Mountain-oriented Education. The Alpine App and the Alpine Toolkit for outdoor lessons are also available for download and constitute the perfect complement to in-class lessons. 

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.