Emigration and the brain drain in the Alpine region: a new EU project involving CIPRA aims to counteract this trend. It is testing innovative governance models to strengthen mountain regions and create a win-win situation for regions of origin, destinations and young emigrants.
CIPRA International
Do you want to know more about CIPRA International? Click here!
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.
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?
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.
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.
The alpMedia newsletter offers boundless information from and for the Alps. CIPRA launched this service in the International Year of the Mountain in 2002. Today the alpMedia Newsletter is published at irregular intervals in the four main languages of the Alps, i.e. French, German, Italian and Slovene. Important messages are merged in an English edition several times a year.