Articles
Where unemployment is now unheard of: Idrija/Sl, the "Alpine Town of the Year"
In April the Slovenian town of Idrija has been declared "Alpine Town of the Year". In the Year of the Alpine Town Idrija intends to make a big step towards becoming a model town for climate protection. In the context of sustainable development, the "Alpine Town of the Year" brand should help the town to become known outside Slovenia as well. Read More…
National parks in the mountains and the simulation of local participatory processes
This year's first issue of the "Revue de géographie alpine" / "Journal of alpine research" presents research on protected mountain areas and the participatory processes in those areas. The five essays discuss questions such as: Do trends and political guidelines contribute to the identification of compromises and consensus, and to the rectification of previous follies in environmental policy? Read More…
Obstacles and facilitations for the movement of fishes
An inventory of all the artificial barriers that impede the flow of rivers has found out that French rivers are interrupted by 60,000 dams, weirs, locks, mills etc. The inventory has been recently published as a online map where the works are shown divided by department, municipality or watercourse. All these works obstruct the movement of migratory aquatic organisms and the transport of sediments, thereby affecting ecosystems. Read More…
New platform for tourism by electrobike
In mid-April, the ExtraEnergy association started the web site "Tourism and Electric Bikes". An interactive map provides information about various tour packages for electrobikers. The web site additionally provides useful information for holiday planning. Read More…
Kick-off for a new alpine media house
The "Las-Alps Infoteca" project was launched at the end of April in Chur/CH. In the coming five years, a competence centre will be established for media products that are relevant to the Alps. The project will be realized in two phases: in the first phase the focus will be on the provision of media products, in the second the centre will also produce and market its own products. Read More…
New web page with information on visitor centres throughout the Alps
A new page has recently been added to the web site of alparc - the network of protected areas in the Alps - for those who want an overview of the many visitor centres in the Alps. Read More…
Maps and data on ECONNECT available online
The "GeoPortal" which is the central project repository for all spatial data and map products of ECONNECT is now online on http://gis.eurac.edu. Furthermore, the working group "Implementation strategy and data needs" has met to discuss the data situation at the current stage of the project. Read More…
Sharing connectivity knowledge within and beyond the Alps and visualising corridors and fragmentation
100 persons from eight European countries followed the invitation to the workshop in Grenoble, France, in November and used this opportunity for active knowledge transfer on ecological networks. The workshop discussions have helped the ECONNECT partners to agree on the appropriate methods which they are now using for modelling habitats and corridors for the whole Alps and for visualizing barriers. Read More…
Alpine riverine landscapes: connectivity, barriers and fragmentation
How strongly is a river landscape fragmented? What are the most important barriers and obstacles in Alpine rivers? These questions are in the focus of the Institute of Ecology from University of Innsbruck within its ECONNECT activities. The results will be visualized with the help of GIS and contacts to regional watershed authorities established for the reduction of barrier impacts and restoration. Read More…
Ecological Connectivity and the Law: from barriers to instruments
Entering the second year of the ECONNECT project, the activities on legal barriers (Work Package 6) are steadily progressing. The two major fields of action are at the moment a comparative analysis of the legal frameworks of ecological connectivity in the Alps and the analysis of the legal situation in the pilot regions. Read More…
Understandable and visualised ECONNECT website
The ECONNECT website www.econnectproject.eu has recently been translated into the four project languages (French, German, Italian and Slovenian) and will soon be updated with maps. Read More…
Berchtesgaden - Salzburg: Improving the ecological network of extensive grasslands
Extensively cultivated grasslands are important landscape elements for ecological connectivity in the pilot region Berchtesgaden - Salzburg. Improving these habitats will help to safeguard species such as butterflies, dragonflies or grasshoppers. This is one of the tasks of the subprojects within ECONNECT which are currently being finalised. Read More…
Rhaetian Triangle: new online tools and support for local initiatives
The Swiss National Park (SNP) is currently developing a web based tool to analyze barriers and corridors of the large pilot region Rhaetian Triangle. Furthermore, two local initiatives are concretely acting for the restoration of ecological connectivity. The new map application will allow comparing a freely defined area with other areas in the neighbourhood and identifying the fields with high need of action according to selected indices. Read More…
Alpi Marittime: Ecological corridors preventing car accidents
In the Italian Alpi Marittime Natural Park car crashes which involve ungulates are very common. In most cases those accidents, besides being hazardous for drivers' life, could have been avoided with a better territorial planning, a more careful infrastructure planning and a warier use of existing technologies. The Alpi Marittime natural park will make use of the new ways to help the passage for animals across busy roads, which have been tested in the Pilot region of Isère. Read More…
Northern Limestone Alps: Involving local population
In the three provinces of Upper and Lower Austria and Styria interviews with 170 stakeholders were held. People were asked about their knowledge, experience and ideas concerning the connectivity of habitats and possible barriers by using a questionnaire. These interviews aimed at receiving an overview of opinions on this theme as well as information on planned or ongoing projects dealing with ecological connectivity in the region. Read More…
Isère Department: Tearing down the barriers
The French Isère Pilot Region is very active in the field of ecological connectivity. Besides ECONNECT, since February 2009 the region is engaged in another EU Project named "Paths of life". This project will last six years and has a budget of nine million Euro. Read More…
Austria: pressure caused by exploitation rose at the highest altitudes
All across Austria the tendency to build cableways and other skiing infrastructures inside the boundaries of protected areas and other high-value zones can be observed. The Austrian Alpine Club (OeAV) warns against the destruction of landscape and recreational resources in the Alps and demands a framework for a well-balanced territorial planning, in order to preserve the typical Alpine landscape. Read More…