The mid-term conference of the Interreg Alpine Space project ALPBIONET2030 will take place in Berchtesgaden, (Berchtesgaden National Park - Germany), July 02 -03, 2018.

During the conference the first project intermediate results for the development of a sound cartography on ecological connectivity for the Alpine arc will be presented.

All project partners, observers and large public are invited.

Further information available soon at: http://www.alpine-space.eu/projects/alpbionet2030/en/home

Per il settimo anno consecutivo il mese di giugno in Valle Camonica sarà interamente dedicato alla riflessione sul tema di Alpi e sostenibilità attraverso gli assi portanti di ambiente, società, economia. Torna la Fiera della Sostenibilità nella Natura Alpina, il contenitore di eventi e iniziative del Parco dell'Adamello - Comunità Montana di Valle Camonica con le aree protette di Rete Natura di Valle Camonica e la collaborazione del Distretto Culturale di Valle Camonica e Sapori di Valle Camonica.

The importance of educating the young generation about sustainable developed is addressed in the new publication “T-KIT 13 - Sustainability and youth work (2018)”.  

To support young people to understand and adopting more sustainable lifestyle, the manual includes information about the issues related to sustainability, educational activities that will familiarise learners with some of the problems facing the globe and encourage them to discuss solutions.

The publication is designed primarily for youth workers and educators to introduce the topic of sustainability to young people in a non-formal setting. 

This publication is part of a series of “T-kits” tools, a product of a partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth.

For further information: Sustainability and youth work (2018)

On May 2nd and 3rd, ALPARC participated at the 9th meeting of EUSALP action group 3 which was held in Poschiavo, CH. The main focus of the action group work is dual education and the creation of future opportunities on the Alpine job market.

The YOUrALPS comparative report being finished by the end of June focuses on the analysis of political framework conditions for the implementation of mountain relevant subjects in education to foster youth employment in the Alpine areas. In this context several curricula of vocational schools with “green jobs” course choices were studied in the five countries in order to draw conclusions on the integration of relevant contents. Moreover, the international network and webplatform add to establishing a transnational community in the Alps and may be used as a platform of exchange for other EUSALP projects. In this sense, YOUrALPS is contributing to challenging youth migration and adds to the strategic orientation in the macroregional strategy. Hence, action group members are in favour of taking advantage of the synergies associated with the project.

ALPARC is lead partner for YOUrALPS: Educating Youth for the Alps: (re)connecting Youth and Mountain Heritage for an inspiring future in the Alps.

YOUrALPS is an Interreg Alpine Space project and lasts from November 2016 to October 2019. It is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg Alpine Space programme.

For further information about the project, please visit the YOUrALPS website.

15 GaYA pilot sites have engaged a large diversity of activities aiming at promoting the participation of the young generation at political level.

The actions go from conceiving or upgrading a youth center, to revising the youth policy of the municipality , from establishing  a youth council at local level, or setting -up a youth participatory budget  via an on-line vote at municipal level. 

In France, the Bauges Nature Park have organised the Youth festival of ideas to gather input for a new regional development programme. More than 30 young people from the local area discussed in a participatory approach about their ideas and they’re for their local area.  The young participants will present the output of the event to the Park Council members and to the local politicians. 

Meanwhile the GaYA partners have developed a participation Toolkit of concrete methods for participatory approaches.  Presenting the youth participation as a process, the Toolkit “Thought, model and methods” gives an overview of participatory methods. The Toolkit addressed to public administrators and policy-makers. 

Furthemore, the GaYA film festival “My Alps – my chance”  is stil open until the 31st of August. There the young generation will have the opportunity to give voice to their actions and personal involvement at political level on creating a video.  The best videos will be prized during the GaYA final Conference "Young ideas for the Alps" taking place the 30th of November 2018 in Chambéry.  

GaYA 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 € - ERDF grant 928,836€). ALPARC is work package leader in the pilot stage (End 2017-2018).

The regional natural parks are the perfect location for outdoors activities: wonderful landscapes, extraordinary natural surroundings, several walking trails and more besides. However, people who engage in outdoor sports in this area need to consider nature and the indigenous wildlife and act responsibly to preserve it. To raise awareness in outdoor participants, the Regional Natural Parks in Auvergne- Rhône Alpes (France) have developed 8 videos.

The videos, of 1’ 30 and designed with the motion design technique, focus on specific topics:  trekking in forests, mountain bike activities, free flight, canyoning, snowshoes activities.

The initiative has been coordinated by the Network of the Regional Natural parks of Auvergne-Rhône- Alpes and supported by the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region in partnership with several partners including ALPARC.

ALPARC is working on awareness raising campaigns on outdoor activities in the frame of the WeWild project. This winter the network officially launched the international cooperation initiative BePart of the Mountain aiming at facilitating the exchange of good practices, developing common awareness-raising tools and implementing joint communication action to initiate behavioural change in outdoor participants.

Since 2007 ALPARC has contributed to coordinating the Ecological Network Platform of the Alpine Convention together with the respective presidencies of Germany and France. The activities of this working group are crucial for the preservation of Alpine biodiversity, mainly in designing and promoting measures ensuring the connectivity between natural habitats. 

 Some years ago, the EUSALP strategy established an action group (Action Group 7) on ecological connectivity as well as green infrastructure, comprising a large area around the Alpine Arc. ALPARC is an official member of this action group and actively contributes with the results of the EU Interreg ALPBIONET2030 project.  The project deals especially with the transition area between the Alps and its periphery. This is particularly important as the highest fragmentation of landscapes and habitats have been observed in a perimeter around the Alps, thus in this transition area between the Alpine Convention territory and the EUSALP area. 

Identifying the importance of this transition area is one of the most central results of recent research   and projects which have been carried out by ALPARC and its international partners during the last years. ALPARC is for this reason calling for closer and stronger cooperation between EUSALP and the Alpine Convention to promote ecological connectivity in and around the Alps aiming at preserving   Alpine biodiversity for the generations to come. 

One of the latest items of news from the Prealpi Giulie Natural Park concerns the foundation of a Youth Advisory Board. As of the day of its foundation there are 13 members, aged 16-30, some of them having had experience of the Junior Ranger program. The board acts as a forum with a regulation approved by the board of the park.

The primary objective is integrating the needs and wishes of the younger generation in order to keep the six municipalities active. In this direction, spokesperson Verena Ambrosino explains: “we want to engage in transboundary connection, in cooperation with the Triglav National park and the Bayerischer Wald Nationalpark, in order to have common projects with other young people and keep our territory alive.”

The first project the youth board will manage is the 4TH edition of Youth at the Top. Hence, it will be the youth representatives themselves who will plan activities for other youngsters to spend together one day and one night in the mountains.

In the next months the park board will also allocate a budget to the Youth Advisory Board which will give them the financial means to get initiatives started.

On the occasion of the International Day for Biological Diversity, the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats launches the social media campaign #NotAlone. The campaign focuses on cities which, due to climate change, are becoming heat islands

It is aimed at raising awareness on how biodiversity helps protecting human well-being and mitigating the effects of climate change.

Visit the #NotAlone Campaign website, follow on Facebook. 

Read the Press release 

The educational international project Youth at the Top is in its 4th edition. The project has evolved and is introducing some novelties for this year of 2018, with a new use for the postcards, now also in a new version, and the introduction of a common topic to be explored within a thematic action. 

The event will bring together thousands of young people in the Alps and the Carpathians and will take place on the 12th and 13th of July 2018. Organizations which haven’t registered yet can still associate a local event to the project.

Up to now, more than 45 events have been confirmed in 8 different countries across the Alps and the Carpathians. 

A common action on the topic: “Climate Change” 

For the first time, all organizations taking part in Youth at the Top are invited to plan an action within a common subject. The topic for the 2018 edition is “Climate Change and its Impacts on Mountain Ecosystems”.  A teaching resource on this subject has been prepared by ALPARC and is now available for all participants, with tips on how to approach Climate Change with the youngsters during the event.

“The Alps in my Backpack” is back again

A great success during Youth at the Top 2017, the teaching tool “The Alps in my backpack” will be available upon request to all organizations taking part in the 2018 edition. This multifunctional support allows an international, cross-cultural approach of the Alps, with a focus on the biodiversity of its territory and the cultural heritage shared by its 6 countries. It is a simple and interactive way of showing youngsters how vast and diverse the Alps are.

The complete list of the confirmed events for Youth at the Top 2018 is already available on the website www.youth-at-the-top.org. An interactive map on the bottom of the page shows the localization of each event.

Tourism has become one of the main sources of income in the Alps. Local populations, especially young people, increasingly depend on tourist activities for their livelihoods; this is why more than 40% of Alpine municipalities are actively engaged in the development of tourism. However, these economic activities can have a negative impact on the Alpine natural and cultural heritage. For these reasons, it is fundamental to "harmonize tourism and recreational activities whith ecological and social requirements", according to Article 2 paragraph 2(i) of the Alpine Convention.

In this framework, on May 25th, 2018, ALPARC held a workshop during the CIPRA annual conference in Bled (Sl). “Living and Working beyond Tourism” was a workshop seeking to identify the challenges young people encounter in the booming tourism industry. 

Positive and negative effects of tourism were investigated together with Barbara Wülser (CIPRA International), Matej Ogrin (CIPRA Slovenia) and more than 30 participants. Negative impacts are especially relevant for local people whose quality of life is suffering due to reasons such as seasonal work and unreasonable working hours. These may also be some of the major reasons as to why young people do not necessarily want to work in tourism. Hence, the quest becomes urgent for new jobs solutions through job diversification, innovative job models and the provision of other ways of creating value. Next to cooperation, social interaction, new mobility schemes and infrastructure, it became clear that different and innovative education models are needed, which adapt to the specific needs of Alpine regions.

International networks such as ALPARC, CIPRA and AiDA may be the platforms on which to promote and to facilitate the exchange of good practices.

YOUrALPS is an Interreg Alpine Space project and lasts from November 2016 to October 2019. It is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg Alpine Space programme. ALPARC is the lead partner of the project.

For further information about the project, please visit the YOUrALPS website.

The Forum Alpinum 2018" Alpine Water – common good or source of conflicts? " will take place from the 4th to the 6th June 2018, in Breitenwang (Austria).

The 13th Forum Alpinum will focus on water use.
Changing environmental and climatic conditions as well as growing demand likely lead to conflicts in water use and water management in the Alps. The ForumAlpinum will identify hot spots of water use and management in the Alps, will analyze target conflicts, assess their relevance in a regional, national or international context, and discuss possible solutions.

More information at: http://2018.forumalpinum.org/