The CIPRA annual conference, « Agir pour le changement! Ne pas en rester aux bonnes intentions » take place the 25-26 September 2015 in Ruggell/LI .

A conference focused on environment protection and sustainable development.
For further information please visit: http://www.cipra.org/en

In the frame of the project « Youth Alpine Dialogue » 2014-2015 led by CIPRA International and in which ALPARC was a partner, the work of the youth groups from different alpine countries led to a film about Mobility in the Alps compiling various interviews: https://youtu.be/q8tGjNi4w7A, a collection of some sustainable good practices identified by youth in the alpine space: Alps: new opportunities for you(th), a handbook providing some ideas and technical tools for youth participation, and the platform YAPP !

The online YAPP platform provides young people with information on organisations and initiatives in favour of youth participation and sustainable development in the Alps. The interested organisations are invited to display their information and offers on the free platform.
 
Read more about the platform in French, German, Italian or Slovene at: http://www.cipra.org/fr/communiques/une-plate-forme-en-ligne-renforce-la-participation-des-jeunes-dans-les-alpes
(you can change the language). 

Visit www.yapp-network.org

Source CIPRA : http://www.cipra.org/en/cipra/international/projects/current/youth-alpine-dialogue?set_language=en
More about the whole “Youth Alpine Dialogue” project: http://www.cipra.org/fr/cipra/international/projets/en-cours/youth-alpine-dialogue-yad

The summer has been rich in events for ALPARC!  Within the framework of the network’s 20th anniversary celebrations , more than 370  young people from the Alps were the main actors in the collective “Youth at the Top” event. As autumn approaches the anniversary celebrations continue. Both the staff of the APA and the general public are invited to take part in an Land art& Photo contest with the slogan “Connecting Man, Mountains and Nature”. In addition, rendezvous at the ALPARC workshop on 12th-13th October in Berchtesgaden to exchange thoughts on what should be the strategy of the protected areas in the years to come. Read all the details in this Newsletter!

This July we learned of the death, after a long illness, of one of ALPARC’s most committed partners, one who had been very active from the network’s beginnings.
Artur Kammerer, Director of the Nature Parks Office of Alto Adige (Italie), had been deeply committed to international cooperation from the very beginning of ALPARC and he made a huge contribution to the development of our network.

In September 1997, Artur joined the Steering Committee of the Alpine Network of Protected Areas and worked with us on an international level for very many years. His instigation of work on ecological connectivity at the ALPARC General Assembly in Berchtesgaden in 2003 was visionary and this subject has become one of ALPARC’s central themes. A large number of events were organised in the Alto Adige parks; Artur was often the instigator of such events and he was always present.

He personified international cooperation like few people in the Alpine network, expressed the need for it and was convinced that exchanges between the staffs of the protected areas were beneficial and even vital to the implementation of a real concept of protection of our common Alpine heritage.

In this same spirit he was also the main actor in the inclusion of the Dolomites in the list of UNESCO world heritage sites. His vision, his conscientiousness and his will to go forward together with his colleagues in the protected areas in all the Alpine countries were instrumental to progress toward the big ALPARC family.
But, above all, he was liked by everyone, both as a colleague and as a friend, because of his great motivation for the protection of life and his kindness and today his absence is cruelly felt in our network.

Artur was a very good friend and a visionary for modern protection of the Alpine Arc; he lived the slogan of ALPARC: “the protected areas: together for the Alps”

We wish his family and colleagues of Alto Adige much strength; he will remain in our hearts and in our collective memory.

Climate change has consequences for mountain tourism. In the area occupied by the Écrins National Park/F, mountaineering is a major part of tourist activity in summer. Current climate change is a constraint on professionals, modifying landscapes and changing one particular perception of mountains.
Sound documents made by the Centre de l'Oralité alpine have assembled statements from mountain and tourist professionals, climate and glaciology specialists and foresters or local government officials...nothing of what they say is dotted with either gloom-mongering or denial; just experiences which give leads as to how we can try to adapt as closely as possible to local economic realities: an introduction to the debate.

Climate Change in the Alps  12:34
Climate Change: Findings in the Ecrins 09:37
Mountaineering and Climate Change: Adapting 09:31

Source: Ecrins National Park, F site: Pierres qui roulent
Read the entire article at this link (in French): http://www.ecrins-parcnational.fr/actualite/temoins-changements-climatiques

To what extent and under what conditions can scientific councils promote scientific research in the protected areas? To what extent do they support the management and governance of these areas and act as mediators in conflicts?
These questions and many others were addressed during the “Interface between Science and Mountain Protected Areas” Workshop organised in Chambéry on 25th-26th June 2015. The meeting was organised by the LabEx ITEM (Innovation & Mountain TErritories) in collaboration with ISCAR and ALPARC.

The workshop brought together more than 40 participants: members of scientific councils or staff responsible for the management of protected areas and research. 
Throughout these two days, different models of scientific council as well as various scientific research working methods and management strategies were presented. Issues of a more general order such as the role of scientific research or the responsibility of a scientific council were keenly debated by experts from all parts of the Alpine Arc.

During the workshop, the results of a preliminary study on scientific councils in the Alpine Arc carried out by LabEx ITEM in collaboration with ISCAR and ALPARC were also presented. The study shows the results of an on-line survey addressed to the Alpine protected areas and carried out between February and March 2015.

For any protected areas still not having completed the above, it is still possible to take part

in the survey by clicking here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1SvRQ8GD-_PkHq-NUO2PRgnDQyzEESVG48jAkWin6pAc/viewform?c=0&w=1

For all information about the survey, please contact directly: gaelle.ronsin@irstea.fr

You can download the preliminary study below

Organized in the frame of the 20 years’ celebration of ALPARC, the workshop which will take place in Berchtesgaden at the 13th of October aims to identify new challenges for the protected areas for the next years - challenges in nature protection and regional development and new governance models for a responsible management of natural spaces and cultural landscapes in the Alps. This heritage shaped by the processes of evolution and wilderness as well as by cultural alpine societies has many facets and needs adequate, modern and professional management.

The alpine protected areas will face various new challenges during the next years, mainly linked to climate change, demographic movements, changing political frame conditions and socio-economic needs of the Alpine society. The Alps will probably be more and more influenced by European politics and impacted by decisions taken outside the Alpine arch.

Which strategy should be adapted for the daily work of protected area managers? How to define priorities? How to find the means to fulfill new tasks while preserving the main mission of nature protection? How to make sure to take the right direction and which are the priorities for international cooperation between Alpine protected areas? How to adapt the services and tools delivered by ALPARC?

All these and other questions will be discussed in Berchtesgaden, in the house of the mountains, a very well adapted place to develop a new vision for the alpine protection areas – together towards 2030!

Please register before the 25th of September, by sending the registration form which can be downloaded below to info[@]alparc.org.

The workshop is open for members and nonmembers of ALPARC and their institutional bodies and staff, for associated organisations and all interested protected area managers.
It will take place during a busy week in Berchtesgaden: a Council meeting of ALPARC will be held on the 14th of October, and the 59th Permanent Committee of the Alpine Convention will take place on the 15th and 16th of October. On this occasion, the German presidency of the Alpine Convention together with the Presidency of the Platform Ecological network will present the last news from the pilot-regions for ecological connectivity.

The French nature park federation has released a leaflet titled "Les Parcs naturels régionaux et la biodiversité : retours d'expériences" realized with the support of GRTgaz and MEDDE.
In this document, the Regional nature parks show their know-how and the importance of considering biodiversity in territorial policy implementations. Around twenty initiatives are presented.

Have a look at the leaflet here.

3 staff members of the French National Park Vanoise have been held hostage by sheep farmers

The president, the Director and several other staff members of La Vanoise National Park have been held hostage since the evening of the 1st of September by about 50 sheep farming representatives of the French community of Bramans.  

The sheep farmers are demanding further measures from the French government to protect their herds against wolf attacks:  they want a shooting permit in case of acute attacks on herds, as well as an additional shooting permit for 5 more wolves in the Department of Savoie until the end of the year, including in the core zone of the National Park.

Even though the return of the wolf to the French Alps brings with it a number of problems for the ranchers that have to be taken seriously, the farmers´ current method of undue deprivation of freedom is totally unacceptable.  No occupational group has the right to act this way.
The National Park administrators and staff of Alpine protected areas take the concerns of ranchers very seriously.  However, for a regulation of wildlife even outside protected areas there have to be clear guidelines on how to ensure a viable population status or on unreasonable damages despite the presence of herd protection measures.

France has one of the best developed and probably most coherent National Park concepts in all of Europe, which is distinguished in particular by the strict and efficient protection of core zones. This protection must not be weakened, or the credibility of nature protection and of a sustainable nature protection policy could be jeopardized.

Despite empathising with the farmers´difficult situation, ALPARC decidedly disapproves of their current detention of officials of the oldest French National Park.

The 28 July 2015, the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP) has been officially launched by the European Commission. It is the fourth EU macro-regional strategy. The macro-regional strategy concerns seven countries; five Member States - Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia - and two non-EU countries - Liechtenstein and Switzerland - overall involving 48 regions.  
By improving cross-border cooperation in the Alpine States as well as identifying common goals, the EUSALP aims to implement them more effectively through transnational collaboration.

Communication and action plan are now transmitted to the Parliament and Council. After endorsement by the Council, the implementation phase of the Strategy can start. A launch event is planned in January 2016 in Slovenia.

For detailed information about EUSALP, please visit:
http://www.alpine-region.eu/

Wer hätte gedacht, dass der Nationalpark Kalkalpen mehr als 1.500 verschiedene Schmetterlingsarten beherbergt? Dieses Gebiet von rund 200 Quadratkilometern gilt als eines der letzten großflächigen Wildnisgebiete Mitteleuropas, geprägt von naturnahen Wäldern, unverbauten Wildbächen und ursprünglicher Gebrigslandschaft. Vielerorts verschollene Schmetterlinge finden hier ein letztes Rückzugsgebiet und viele von ihnen lassen sich noch häufig beobachten. Vom talnahen Schlucht- und Auwald, über alpine Grasmatten und Felsbiotope zu den sanften Almen und Wiesen: Anhand von über 20 charakteristischen Lebensräumen wird in diesem Buch die jeweils typische Schmetterlingsfauna dargestellt. So wird dieses Buch zum wertvollen Begleiter bei Wanderungen in den Ostalpen und speziell im Gebiet des Nationalpark Kalkalpen.

The nature international photo contest of the Stelvio, Gran Paradiso, Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise and Vanoise National Parks is back.
Registration for the 11th edition of the international photo contest “Fotografare il Parco” has opened.

The contest is organized by the Stelvio, the Gran Paradiso, the Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise and the Vanoise National Parks with the financial support of Swarovski Optik Italia and the support of Alparc (The Alpine Network of Protected Areas) and Federparchi.

The four protected areas are glad to welcome in their territories all those passionate about photography and nature who would like to take pictures of the biodiversity heritage of the national parks and who want to show their work to the large public.  

The winners will be awarded with considerable prizes, offered by the parks.

The registration is open until 30th of November 2015. As specified in the rules, each author can participate in each of the five categories and is allowed to present a maximum of four pictures for each category. In the contest, either colour or black and white photos are allowed.

Participation is free of charge.
The rules and the instructions on how to take part in the contest are available at www.fotografareilparco.it.

For any further information about the contest, please contact: