In January 2015, the REEMA, a French partner of ALPARC and a member of the working group Mountain Environmental Education in Alpine Protected Areas, changes its name and becomes EDUC'ALPES. This "Network for Alpine Mountain Education" leads since 10 years various thematic working groups at French Alps' level, among other one group gathering all the staff members of French Alpine Protected Areas dealing with educational topics.
Isabelle Roux is the director of EDUC'ALPES and its team consists at the moment of 5 persons.

A new name means also a new logo and a new homepage:www.educalpes.fr

The National Park Hohe Tauern - Tyrol will host the General Assembly 2015 of the Alpine Network of Protected Areas - ALPARC in the frame of the Memorial Danilo Re.

The National Park Hohe Tauern organizes for the first time in the history of ALPARC its General Assembly. The park, who is one of the founding members of the network and very active since the beginning, will so welcome the two most important events of the ALPARC calendar 2015 in the Defereggental in the valley of St. Jacob.

The 20th edition of the Danilo Re Memorial will take place from Thursday 22nd to Sunday 25th January 2015 in St. Jakob in Defereggental, in the Hohe Tauern National Park, Tyrol, Austria

This will also be the venue for the 2nd General Assembly of the ALPARC association and the first festive event in the context of the 20th anniversary of the Alpine Network of Protected Areas.

More information at the new Danilo Re webpage  at this link!

The Swiss Forum on Conservation Biology SWIFCOB is a yearly conference. It aims at improving the dialogue of scientists with biodiversity conservation practitioners. Each conference focuses on one topic. Talks are held in German, French or English.

SWIFCOB 15 will take place on January 16, 2015 in Bern.

As officially announced on December 17 2014, the Presidency of the Alpine Convention for the period 2015-2016 is held by Germany and implemented by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, with the slogan “The Alps – a symbol of European diversity”.
The minister Barbara Hendricks is the President of the Alpine Conference.  

ALPARC, as partner of the Alpine Convention, will work in close cooperation with the German Presidency as partner of the Alpine Convention on joint projects on different topics, in particular on biodiversity and ecological connectivity in the Alps.

For more information please read the Alpine Convention press release

This section includes all the PowerPoint presentations shown during the Workshop "Wildlife and connected habitats" that took place from December 11th - 12th, 2014 in Admont, at the Gesäuse National Park – Styria (Austria)

ALPARC and the Gesäuse National Park are pleased to invite you to the common Workshop
„Wildlife and connected habitats” 11th and 12th of December 2014

in Admont – Gesäuse National park – Styria / Austria

The 20th edition of the Danilo Re Memorial will take place from 22nd to 25th January 2015 in the Hohe Tauern National Park, in Defereggental, East Tyrol, Austria.

This competition for park rangers and staff of the protected areas, which first took place in 1995, pays tribute to Danilo Re, an Italian ranger from Piedmont who died while in the course of his duties.
Sadly, this year we are also paying tribute to Roselyne Anselmet, a ranger in the Vanoise National Park, as well as to Valentino Chiale, a ranger in the Gran Paradiso National Park, both of whom passed away this year in the course of their assignments.

The thematic seminar, devoted to the exchange of experiences, is as always, highly topical: “The introduction and (natural) return of species, the local population and conflicts: what is the role of the park ranger?”
As usual, the ALPARC General Assembly  will also take place during the same context, on the morning of Friday 23rd January. We await all the members of ALPARC, as well as those who wish to become such!
You will find useful information on the new Danilo Re website.

Inscriptions are still possible until 30th December 2014; don’t miss this important international event!
To register, click on this link

About a hundred delegates: managers of protected areas, representatives of authorities, politicians, ONGs  and local players, citizens and researchers, met together on 13th, 14th and 15th October 2014 in Chambéry (FR) to learn about and discuss the results of the European greenAlps project, in which ALPARC plays the role of lead partner.

The innovative format of the event allowed for plenty of room for exchanges through round tables, interviews of actors and participatory workshops. Notably among the results discussed were political recommendations by the project partners that more importance should be given to the consideration and implementation of biodiversity measures in environmental policies.
These recommendations were subsequently presented at the “Ecological Network” Platform of the Alpine Convention, at the Alpine Conference which was held in Turin at the end of November, and to the representatives of different departments of the European Commission during a specially organised event in Brussels in November. However, the greenAlps project also looked at local issues, notably in the pilot areas of the project. Thanks to field visits and workshops with local actors not only  the principal areas of action in the themes of ecosystem and ecological connectivity services were identified, but also needs such as the facilitation of interregional and transborder cooperation , notably in the context offered by biosphere reserves.  The Prealpi Giulie (IT) Nature Park and the neighbouring Triglav (SL) National Park wish to reinforce this cooperation. They are partners in this project and, moreover, officially recognized as a new transborder pilot area for ecological connectivity by the Alpine Convention, following the activities launched during the greenAlps project.

The final documents of greenAlps will soon be available on the project site:http://www.greenalps-project.eu/ 
The greenAlps project was co-funded in the context of the ETC Alpine Space programme

Dr. Michael Vogel, Head of Berchtesgaden National Park, and Superintendent Don Neubacher, Director of Yosemite National Park in California/USA, agreed a targeted cooperation in the areas of knowledge, research, education and public relations.

As early as spring 2015, a delegation from the USA will visit Berchtesgaden National Park to share experiences and initiate joint projects. The second oldest national park in the USA is particularly well known for its famous mountains, cliff formations and climbing routes. "El Capitan", "Half Dome" and "The Nose". The conservation area, covering around 3,100 square kilometres in the Sierra Nevada, was founded in 1890 and welcomes about 3.7 million visitors every year.

In addition to the Chinese Huangshan and Jiuzhaigou national parks and the Torres del Paine national park in Chile, Berchtesgaden is the fourth official partner park of Yosemite National Park.

Source:Berchtesgaden Press Release

The 8th December 2014, the French Ministry of the environment, Ségolène Royal signed the ministerial decree establishing the Baronnies provençales Regional Nature Park in Vinsorbes (Drôme, France) during a meeting organized by Didier Guillaume (Member of the Senate), the local authorities and with the delegates of the two French Alpine regions Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Rhône-Alpes.

Source : Press release French Ministry Ségolène Royal (08/12/2014) French only