Alpine Politics

For more than 70 years, CIPRA has been working to promote sustainable policies for the Alps, looking ahead, putting tomorrow’s challenges on the political agenda and taking policymakers to task.

For a good life in the Alps, it is important to guarantee a balance between economic interests and the needs of the local populations and nature. CIPRA helps to bridge this gap on the political stage. The protocols of the Alpine Convention offer guidance. In combination with other tools, they empower the political actors to adopt appropriate measures.

The tools of Alpine policy

  • The Alpine Convention is an international treaty involving the countries of the Alps and the European Union. As co-initiator, CIPRA helped to create a fundamental requirement: an international political body for sustainable development and protection for the Alps. CIPRA contributes expertise in the Compliance Committee and the working groups.
  • As a mountain chain at the heart of Europe, the Alps are strongly impacted by the policies of the EU. The EU strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP) is being established to strengthen future cooperation between the Alps and the surrounding regions and cities. CIPRA and its partners are calling for civil society to be involved in this process.
  • In its core activities and beyond, CIPRA is working in national and transnational political bodies for a good life in the Alps.

CIPRA’s vision

  • A strong civil society
    Cities, municipalities, regions and countries of the Alps communicate their experiences and learn from one another. They involve the people in the planning processes and take account of the ideas and visions of young people. They set the framework conditions needed for all three pillars of sustainability – economy, nature and society – to be strengthened in equal measure.
  • A vibrant Alpine Convention
    The Alpine Convention provides a framework for these endeavours. It is an active clearing house. Keen use is made of its various platforms and working groups, while the Compliance Committee provides effective monitoring of observance of its provisions.
  • A responsible response
    The 14 million residents of the Alps can count on the solidarity of the 56 million people living in the surrounding regions – and vice-versa. All these people are aware of the special value of the Alps as a living space for human beings and the flora and fauna.

Alpine Convention

For more than 60 years, CIPRA has been working to promote sustainable policies for the Alps, looking ahead, putting tomorrow’s challenges on the political agenda and taking policymakers to task. More

Macroregional Strategy

The EU strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP) is to strengthen future cooperation between the Alps and the surrounding cities and regions. CIPRA and its partners are calling for civil society to be involved in the process. More

Sustainable development goals

In its Agenda 2030, the United Nations has formulated a total of 17 goals for sustainable development. What do they mean for the Alps? More

CIPRA's Positions

CIPRA regards it as one of its core tasks to comment on current topics and developments. Its broad support as an umbrella organisation with more than 100 member associations in the Alpine region justifies it. Please check the other language versions for more position papers!

Factsheet to the „Eurovignette III“
Factsheet to the „Eurovignette III“
The International Commission for the Protection of the Alps (CIPRA International) very much welcomes the fact that the EU now intends to set a course that reflects the true costs of transport and is taking a first step by amending Directive 2006/38/EC ("Eurovignette III"). The Directive must also relieve the burden on the Alpine region, which is particularly sensitive ecologically and whose population has to bear particularly high external costs; it must also contribute more to sustainability in freight transport. One important step is a sound directive on transport infrastructure costs, i.e. one that includes the efficient and consistent allocation of all relevant costs. Everyone stands to benefit from its success: the population, with a healthier, safer and better quality of life, and the transport industry, with more reliable transit routes. Indeed, the risks affect the local population as much as they affect those travelling through.
Schaan Memorandum on the Future in the Alps
Schaan Memorandum on the Future in the Alps
The future belongs to those who shape it. In the Alps countless initiatives involving thousands of activists are working to do just that. Yet many are unaware of the fact that elsewhere other people are working on precisely the same problems as they are. This is where the Future in the Alps, a project launched by CIPRA, the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps, comes into play. The scope of the project is to collect practical experience throughout the Alps, classify it and make it available to those who need it. It consists of a phase of collating knowledge and good projects, called alpKnowhow, a phase of processing and disseminating it, called alpService, and an implementation phase, called alpPerformance. CIPRA itself is not a research body, nor is it an educational institution; it is a non-governmental organisation, so it is mainly concerned with the questions of what the results of alpKnowhow mean politically and what demands can be derived from these results. To answer these questions CIPRA representatives from seven countries convened in Schaan/Liechtenstein on 8 and 9 December 2006. The demands and political conclusions on all topics are set out in the present Schaan Memorandum on the Future in the Alps.
Resolution: Climate Protection and Climate Change Adaptation Strategies
Resolution: Climate Protection and Climate Change Adaptation Strategies
The Alpine region is particularly affected by global climate changes, many of which are the result of man’s impact. The Alps are a particularly sensitive region and are affected all the more by the forecast changes such as the rise in annual average temperatures, the increase in extreme meteorological events, summer droughts and melting glaciers. It is CIPRA’s view that climate change represents one of the 21st century’s greatest challenges. Given the above it calls upon the European Union, the bodies of the Alpine Convention, all the Alpine states, the federal provinces, regions and cantons as well as all governmental and non-governmental authorities .. to intensify their climate protection efforts in order to reduce the greenhouse effect; .. to draw up sustainable strategies for dealing with the growing repercussions of climate change.

News on Alpine politics

Point of view: Mountains for everyone? Not a chance!
Point of view: Mountains for everyone? Not a chance!
Access to the mountains and mountain sports is often unfair, exclusive, segregating and discriminatory. Henriette Adolf, Deputy Executive Director of CIPRA Germany, argues in favour of equal participation in mountain sports.
2030 Winter Olympics in Nice
2030 Winter Olympics in Nice
Switzerland’s idea of decentralised, sustainable games has been rejected by the IOC. Instead, the French Mediterranean city of Nice is very likely to be awarded the contract.
Controversial railway tunnel between Turin and Lyon
Controversial railway tunnel between Turin and Lyon
In mid-June 2023, hundreds of people gathered in the French border town of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to protest against the construction of a high-speed rail tunnel between Lyon and Turin. In a public statement, CIPRA France and Mountain Wilderness also criticised the project.
Point of view: Avoiding transport collapse together
Point of view: Avoiding transport collapse together
As regards the growing volume of individual and transit traffic, it can be stated that neither regional nor national perspectives will lead to solutions. We have to find them together, because the Alps lie in the midst of Europe. This geographical truism is central to an understanding of transport policy problems in the Alps so as to avoid transport collapse, says Kaspar Schuler, Executive Director of CIPRA International.

Point of Views of CIPRA

Point of view: A building plan for a resilient society
Point of view: A building plan for a resilient society
The corona crisis has broken our lives into pieces: relationships, working models, leisure and consumerism are loose building blocks. It is still unclear how we will reassemble them. We now have the chance to draw up a new building plan that is fit for the future, says Barbara Wülser, Co-Executive Director of CIPRA International.
Point of view: Water needs no borders – do we?
Point of view: Water needs no borders – do we?
So far, sufficient water is available in the Alpine regions. If there is to be enough for everyone in the future, despite climate change, water must be treated as a common Alpine resource across national borders, says Marion Ebster, Project Manager at CIPRA International.
Point of view: For glaciers without a circus
Point of view: For glaciers without a circus
The largest glacier ski resort in the Alps is to be built in Tyrol, Austria - on already melting glaciers. The planned connection of the ski areas in Pitztal and Ötztal goes against all reason, says Kaspar Schuler, Co-Manager of CIPRA International.
Point of view: Equal opportunities for trains and trucks!
Point of view: Equal opportunities for trains and trucks!
224 million tonnes of goods rolled through the Alps last year, a new record – more than two thirds of it on trucks. To decrease the pressure on nature and humans along the transit axes, railways and roads have be on the same level playing field, says Jakob Dietachmair, Project Manager at CIPRA International.
Point of view: So the landscape has a future
Point of view: So the landscape has a future
The guardians of the landscape are the people who live there. They must be involved in the decision-making and development processes, says Špela Berlot, Managing Director of CIPRA Slovenia.
Point of view: Europe and its Alps
Point of view: Europe and its Alps
The fundamental question facing the direct elections to the European Parliament in May 2019 is: hat is the outlook – in Europe and in the Alps – for democracy and “good governance”? Erwin Rothgang, Vice-President of CIPRA International, argues for new forms of co-operation.