The Alpine Network of Protected Areas
Focusing on watercourses and more process dynamics, protected areas in the ALPARC CENTR’ALPS area work on an overview on management measures in order to initiate a transfer of activities and to set up a cooperation platform. Those activities take place in the current project "Biodiversity Conservation in Times of Climate Change".
You can download the project sheet below.
Photo: © S. Weizenegger
The OSA Mapping Report is ready for download in the section below.
The Stables of the Fort Bard (AO) will display, from 26 March to 25 April 2023, the winning and mentioned photographs of the 16th edition of the international nature photography contest “Fotografare il Parco”, organized by Gran Paradiso, Stelvio, Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise Italian National Parks, and de la Vanoise French National Park, with the patronage of Alparc, Federparchi and the participation of the media partner “La Rivista della Natura”.
Entrance to the exhibition is included in the admission ticket to the Fort. The exhibition can be attended during the fort’s usual opening hours: Tuesday to Friday (from 10.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m.); Saturday, Sunday, and holidays (from 10.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m.). Closed on Mondays. Special openings: Monday 10 and Monday 24 April.
More information about the contest on www.fotografareilparco.it
The 37th edition of the Sondrio Festival (IT) is taking place from the 16 to the 26 November 2023!
The Sondrio Festival is an unique international film festival, mainly dedicated to nature films, of high scientific and cinematographic level, made in protected areas worldwide. It takes place every year since 1987 in Sondrio, Italy, in November, for two weeks.
Registrations for documentaries are now open until the 19 May 2023! The festival is open to film-makers of documentaries featuring naturalistic, ethnographic and managerial aspects of National Parks, Nature Reserves and other types of Protected Areas, classified as such by a national or local authority.
Read here for more information.
Youth at the Top event is back for its ninth edition and the registration is now open! The 2023 edition will take place on July 13 th 2023 (and the night of July 13th to 14th). On this common date, protected areas all around the Alps and the Carpathians are invited to take groups of curious kids and teens to the mountains, to experiment their surroundings in a new and creative way. Organizations, protected areas, youth associations, local professionals, and refuges are invited to take part in this international event and to plan educational activities on this year's common theme: "Forest – the Almighty".
Organizations willing to join the project should fill up the online form before April 30th.
What is Youth at the Top?
Youth at the Top is an international event that aims to help young people (re)discover nature and connect to their mountain heritage. It is organized through local events that take place simultaneously in different countries across the Alps and Carpathians. It has a highly symbolic dimension as hundreds of young people go out and experience nature on a single date through an overnight stay in the mountains. Each registered organization is invited to plan a hike, an overnight stay in the mountains, an activity on a common topic and other educational activities to help the younger generation reconnect with the mountain environment. The project leaves a lot of leeway to the participating organizations to organize local events according to their goals and capabilities.
ALPARC has been responsible for the general management and international communication of the project since its very beginning. The 9th edition of Youth at the Top is organized by ALPARC with the financial support from the German Ministry of the Environment, the Agence nationale de la cohésion des territoires of France and the Principality of Monaco.
Click here to open the Youth at the Top website.
Click here to watch the official video.
ALPARC has been requested by the Ötztal Nature Park (A) for a short enquiry concerning remaining glaciers surfaces in the alpine protected areas. Beside the fact that this statistics may be interesting for the parks, it gives the opportunity for a knowledge and management exchange on the topic if wished which can be proposed by ALPARC.
A survey was conducted within protected areas and parks and on glacier loss during the last decades among ALPARC members. ALPARC unified the received data and compiled it in tables. We expressly want to thank all the parks and protected areas participating on this issue with very quick responses and as well the Swiss Parks Network gathering the data for Switzerland.
The tables can be downloaded below.
We are happy to announce that an article about ALPARC CENTR'ALPS has been published in the journal eco.mont!
ALPARC is one of the initiators of the journal. The current issue contains other contributions referring to protected areas and wildlife, e.g. about governance and communication in Biosphere Reserves and about National Parks in Twitter from the German-speaking perspective.
Click here to read the article.
The full journal can be downloaded below.
Visitor management and climate change are not only popular terms in the media, but above all they represent an almost daily challenge for the work of the Alpine Park rangers and staff of protected areas, either individually or in combination.
For this the topic for the upcoming ranger seminar at the 27th Danilo Re Memorial is:
"New challenges for ranger – working with the impacts of climate change and increased tourism flows."
The Ranger seminar will take place on Friday, January 20th, 2023; 14:00 -18:00 h in Cogne.
Click here for more information, the agenda can be downloaded below.
The Reading Mountains Festival is a way to connect people that love books and mountains, despite them being physically apart. Book lovers and authors, mountaineers and artists throughout the Alps (and beyond) have a chance to discuss similar issues and evaluate the meaning, impact, and purpose of Alpine literature. Some of these discussions are captured in the film “People, Books and Mountains - The Quest for Alpine literature” that was produced as a follow up to the first editions of the Reading Mountains Festival.
The Alpine Convention invites you to celebrate the unique Alpine cultural heritage in this special year of sustainable mountain development.
As always, your event should take place in the run-up to or on International Mountain Day, Sunday, December 11, 2022.
Join from the Alps (or beyond) and help showcase the importance of the conservation and sustainable use of mountain ecosystems and celebrating mountains around the world. If you are interested, register here to be part of the Reading Mountains Festival 2022!
The Association of Austrian Nature Parks (Verband der Naturparks Österreichs) has published a climate strategy for Austrian Nature Parks!
Several climate-relevant adaption and mitigation strategies are addressed such as the definition of four fields of activity - based on the Austrian Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change - in which there are promising opportunities for implementation:
- Ecosystems and Biodiversity
- Tourism
- Agriculture" and "Forestry
- "Transport infrastructure and mobility".
The activity field "Biodiversity and Ecosystems" is of particular importance, as nature parks can contribute a high level of competence in this thematic area. Furthermore, recommendations were made for measures to be taken by the nature parks and their associations and the Association of Nature Parks of Austria (VNÖ).
Below you can download the strategy in German version.
