The Reading Mountains Festival is an opportunity for different partners around the Alps to organize events to celebrate Alpine literature, languages and cultures under a joint umbrella.

On International Mountain Day, 11th December 2017 and the days leading to it partners are invited to organize their own event highlighting Alpine literature in different ways: by organizing a reading by a local author, having a presentation of a book set in the region or in any other innovative way. Every event will emphasize the economic, environmental, social and cultural dimensions of life in the Alps. 

For further information, have a look at news here.

On November 22, the ALPARC operational unit had the pleasure of welcoming a group of researchers and park managers from the Republic of Korea. The group, led by Mr Kim Won Kyung, Senior Researcher at the Korea National Park Service, (KNPS) who also provided translation from English, came to Europe for a benchmarking visit and exchange. Composed of researchers from the KNPS, Jeju Research Institute and the Hallasan National Park Service (Jeju Special Self-Governing Province), the group’s objective is to get inspiration from European nature conservation policies and protected area management for a new millennium management plan of Hallasan National Park on the occasion of its 50th anniversary (founded in 1970).

The operational unit presented the ALPARC network, its organisation, partnerships and activities in the fields of ecological connectivity, regional development and mountain-oriented education. Following the presentation, the group had a lively discussion on the organization and activities of the ALPARC network, as well as on management practices and current challenges for protected areas. Besides the visit to the ALPARC office, the group will visit the Vanoise National park in France and the Swiss National Park during their stay in Europe.

Mount Hallasan is situated on Jeju volcanic island, the largest island off the coast of the Korean Peninsula. The highest mountain in South Korea with 1950 m A.S.L., Mount Hallasan is a massive shield volcano. The Mountain and Jeju Island have been designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (2002), World Heritage Site (2007) and Geopark (2010).

The registration for the 1st Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP) is now open! The event, taking place on 23-24 November 2017 at BMW World in Munich, is jointly organised by Bavaria (current Presidency of the EUSALP) and the European Commission (Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy).
 

For more details:  https://www.alpine-region.eu/news/registration-1st-annual-forum-eu-strategy-alpine-region-open

Together with the project partners, ALPARC coordinated the development of a short video clip to disseminate the message of the project GaYA (Governance and Youth in the Alps) to regional and local decision-makers and local administrations.

A creative storyboard with pictures is drawn on a whiteboard and available in five languages. The main message: it is up to the decision makers (local communities, administration and protected areas) to involve young people in their localities? For this reason GaYA is there to help and provide them with appropriate tools.

The challenge behind GaYA project is the low implication that young people have regarding political life and the decisions made in their Alpine localities. Besides providing tools and methods that can help foster youth participation on local level in the Alpine space, the project wants to promote youth participation and communicate good practices in this regard.

For further information visit: http://www.alpine-space.eu/projects/gaya/en/home

GaYA (Governance and Youth in the Alps) runs from November 2016 to February 2019 and is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg Alpine Space programme (Total budget: 1,092,748 € - 928,836€ ERDF grant). ALPARC is work package leader in the pilot stage (End 2017-2018).

The Sondrio Film Festival, the International exhibition on protected areas documentary take place from the 13th to the 26th of  November 2017 in Sondrio.
The event aims at raising awareness on nature conservation and protection, valorising environmental education activities and promoting nature documentaries.

After a first workshop in Vorarlberg last March, ALPARC has recently organised two further workshops in Les Ecrins National Park (France) and in the nature parks of the Ossola Valleys (Italy) in the frame of the WeWild project. The aim of the project and its growing working group is the development of a joint communication initiative to reduce wildlife disturbance in the Alps in winter. The numerous participants learned about the project’s progress, gave feedback and were involved in the further development of this joint initiative. 

In the French Alps several ongoing projects aim at tackling human-nature conflicts in outdoor sports. The workshop in Le Bourg d’Oisans, (Les Ecrins National Park, 21st September 2017), specifically dedicated to recreational impacts in winter, helped to extend the working group in the French Alps. 29 practitioners from almost all concerned French natural parks in the Alps and from smaller protected areas (e.g. NATURA 2000 managers) were present. Thanks to the workshop the initiative is being embedded in the regional context of joint projects, in which many stakeholders are involved: the Biodiv’sports “Awareness Raising via Participation and Mapping” project (lead partner LPO Isère) and the film series project of the Regional nature parks of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

During the second international WeWild workshop in the Italian Alps (Ossola Valley nature parks, 19th and 20th October 2017), 17 participants had a closer look at the regional context of winter wildlife disturbance. The challenges facing protected areas and stakeholders in the Italian Alps, linked to a growing impact of outdoor sports in winter, are huge, but only a few pilot initiatives exist to date. A country-specific concern that still worsens the situation in winter is the lack of legislation regarding heli-skiing and snowmobiles. The joint initiative of WeWild and its tools could trigger further local actions in areas where stakeholders see the need to act or are already acting (e.g. South Tyrol, Aree protette dell’Ossola).

Both workshops helped to work further on the initiative’s strategy and its charter, and on the joint communication tools (graphical identity, video, and website). By the end of the year, the ALPARC operational unit will finalise these outputs and come up with a communication plan.

The WeWild project is financed by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN, Germany) with funds of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB, Germany).

The 6th edition of the International Symposium for Research in Protected Areas will take place in Salzburg, Austria on 2nd – 3rd November 2017. Registrations are open now!

Protected areas are the backbone of the Alpine Region and play an important role regarding the regional development of the territory. More than 100 key stakeholders from more than 20 countries will discuss protection aims, protected area management as well as respective impacts on society and regional economy in times of transition and change. 

Following the idea of transdisciplinary research, academics and representatives from governments, business, NGOs and the general public will come together in order to discuss relevant topics and concepts regarding the future development of protected areas from the Alps to the Danube Delta. Hence, Specific thematic issues are related to biodiversity protection, water and resource management, sustainable agriculture and the role of long-term monitoring in protected areas. 

The symposium is an excellent opportunity for sharing views and findings as well as fostering the dialogue between scientific expertise and practical insights in the field of protected areas on an international scale in the Alps and the Danube. 

Find out more about the program at the website of the conference. Registrations are open until October, 4th.

The 6th International Symposium for Research in Protected Areas is organized by

« Winter sports and wildlife in the Alps »

We are organizing the second WeWild workshop in the Ossola valleys (Piedmont, Italy) on the 19th and 20th of October 2017.

Please find enclosed the agenda.

For more information : info@alparc.org

The Alpine Day of Tourism and Mobility is a two-day conference focusing on innovative and sustainable mobility in touristic regions.

The conference will take place on 18th-19th October 2017 in Werfenweng, Austria.

The participants will have the chance to experience soft mobility solutions in Werfenweng and to attend panel discussions concerning the future of touristic mobility as well as concrete projects implemented in six Alpine countries.

To register to the event, fill in the form available below and send it to tourismusmobilitaet[@]bmwfw.gv.at by 4th October 2017.

For further information, please find the announcement attached.

The Alpine Day of Tourism and Mobility is organized by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management.

The video clip reflecting the atmosphere of the 3rd edition of Youth at Top has just been released !
Are you curious? Please have a look and discover the experiences lived by our young participants and their guides.

The third edition of “Youth at the Top” took place on July 11th and July 12th in six Alpine countries and three countries of the Carpathians.This time, the international youth event hosted 48 events which involved numerous different day and night activities.
Hence, more than 500 enthusiastic young people from Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland, Poland, Romania and Slovakia set out on a great adventure to discover the treasures of the mountain environment.

For more information about the 2017 edition, please consult the Youth at the Top website.

We are looking forward to seeing you on the 12th of July 2018 !

This international initiative is coordinated by ALPARC and supported by the German Ministry for the Environment and the Principality of Monaco.

CIPRA Annual Conference 2017 will take place in Innsbruck on 29th-30th September.

The conference main topic will be spatial planning in the Alps. Several challenges are putting a relevant pressure on the future development of the Alps underlining the need to discuss the future perspectives of the spatial planning of the whole Alpine region. Different aspects will be addressed such as demographic change, management of scarce resources, increasing demand of mobility, consumption, energy and recreational activities and different actors and stakeholders will take part in the discussions.

For more information, programme and registration, please consult CIPRA website.

The Young Academics Award is an initiative led by the Alpine Convention in collaboration with ISCAR that seeks every year to reward the best master theses of students from different universities from across the Alps, who deal with relevant Alpine topics.

The 4th edition of the Award is entitled “Sustainable water management in the Alps”. The particular problems the contest will be focusing on are: conflicting water uses among different sectors, abundance and scarcity of water and efficient water use.

The deadline for applications is May 31st 2018.

For durther details about the Award, consult our news or visit the website of the Alpine Convention here.