Search

Sabbatical in the Alps

Take a longer break and give something back: The "Alpine Sabbatical" in Switzerland offers a meaningful alternative way of spending your free time.

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.

"We Stay on the Ground"

Explore the Alps by train: For the "Youth Alpine Interrail" participants, flight-free travel is a varied adventure.

Strange but true...

Harmful transit traffic

Priority for health and the environment along the Brenner axis: this is what CIPRA Italy and other environmental associations are demanding of the Italian Minister of Transport.

Wanted: pioneering renovations and new buildings

The fifth edition of the international architecture prize, "Constructive Alps", has been launched. Renovations and new buildings that set an example for sustainable construction in the Alps can be submitted until 14 March 2020.

Mountain Research and Development Vol 39, No 2: Adaptation to Climate Change and Sustainable Mountain Development

Papers focus on scenario planning in Iceland; risk awareness in Austria; alpine pasture assessment in France; the role of different knowledge sources in adaptation in Venezuela and Colombia, Ecuador, and the Indian Himalaya; local adaptations to water scarcity in the Hindu Kush–Himalaya; declining glacier water in the Mongolian Altai; national glacier monitoring worldwide; and adaptation initiatives in African mountains. The issue was guest-edited by Carolina Adler.

Mountaineering recognized as world cultural heritage

Unesco now lists alpinism as an intangible world cultural heritage. Alpine associations from France, Switzerland and Italy submitted the application.

Alpine Spheres: Natural limits - Infinite possibilities

Conference documentation CIPRA Annual Conference 2017

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?

Compact "Changing views - Changing thoughts - Changing behaviour"

How come we’re taking the car? Why is it so diffcult to change our habits? How can we deal with switching to sustainable alternatives?

A top combination: From road to rail

It is technically and politically possible to shift freight traffic through the Alps onto rail. The AlpInnoCT project shows how it could work.

To work by car? No thanks!

There are well developed public transport systems and cycle paths in the Alpine Rhine valley, yet the majority of commuters – who number up to 50,000 a day – travel to work by car. A CIPRA project is looking for solutions in this international quadrangle.

Oh

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.

The key to local development

Pluralism as a strength of the Alps: ten organisations have committed themselves to this as part of the PlurAlps project. They presented their findings at the final conference held in Bolzano/I, including an innovation toolbox for integration together with policy recommendations.

The Alps as cultural laboratory

Inspiration, shared experiences and participation: the annual CIPRA conference saw over 100 attendees from every Alpine country meet in Altdorf/CH at the end of October 2019 to discuss the “Alpine Cultural Workshop”. The event was organised by CIPRA International and CIPRA Switzerland.

Alpine Refugees. Immigration at the core of Europe

This collection of essays highlights how given Alpine territories in Austria, Italy, and Switzerland are currently facing challenges imposed by migration, the barriers and limitations they are encountering, and the extent to which migration triggers policy and territorial innovations that can generate beneficial impacts for both migrants and local inhabitants.

Budding ideas and flourishing projects

Building raised plant beds, converting parking spaces, replacing plastic bottles: at the end of the local project, young people from Schaan/LI travelled by train to Maribor/Sl and presented their actions aimed at a more sustainable lifestyle.

Solemn vigils for dying glaciers

Many Alpine glaciers have already disappeared due to global warming. In September 2019, vigils in Italy and Switzerland drew attention to this fact.

Two regions, one Nature Park

Nature protection across borders. The Veglia-Devero Nature Park in Italy and the Binntal Landscape Park in Switzerland have together been certified as a “Transboundary Park”.

Youth Alpine Interrail: On track for 2020

With CIPRA's «Youth Alpine Interrail» project, 100 young people travelled environmentally friendly through the Alps this summer. On 27 September 2019, the successful conclusion was celebrated in Bern/CH, where the travellers also worked together to develop demands for sustainable transport.

Youth demonstrates for Climate- and Alpine Protection

Hundreds of thousands of school students across the Alps went on strike at the end of September. They demanded appropriate action be taken for climate protection across the Alps. CIPRA supported the call together with participants from Youth Alpine Interrail.

A Landscape of Ideas

What does the future of the mountainous regions look like? Young people from all over the Alps sought answers in the CIPRA “Living Labs” project – on joint excursions, in workshops and through discussions on the topic of landscape.

Urban life in the countryside

A drive-in cinema, indoor cycling, workshops – the “BASIS Vinschgau Venosta” project aims to create an inspiring venue in the northern Italian municipality of Schlanders, South Tyrol.

“There's no other way”

As a minister, 55-year-old Slovenian Alenka Smerkolj has already drawn up a strategy for Slovenia's sustainable development. As Secretary General of the Alpine Convention, she now intends to continue along this path.

Rethinking spaces

A picnic at a construction site, the rescue of undeveloped land and the conversion of an old barracks: three examples that rethink spatial planning in the Alps.

Oh...

Keeping free spaces free

How an association in Vorarlberg, Austria came up with the idea of buying land in order to save it from being built on.

Picnic at the construction site

How a disused construction site in the middle of the Slovenian capital is becoming a popular meeting place.