Search

Point of view: Municipalities as drivers for sustainable development

Sustainable development cannot be prescribed by law: it needs local people to put it into effect. Municipalities have a key role here, says Jean Horgues-Debat, the newly elected President of CIPRA France.

Society’s demands mark the landscape

Conflicting needs and exaggerated expectations collide when it comes to spatial planning. Its role needs to be rethought, with a move away from overall planning and a shift towards guidance and awareness-raising. This was the tenor of the CIPRA Annual Conference held on 29 and 30 September 2017 in Innsbruck, Austria.

I-LivAlps: a conclusion for the future

September saw the fourth and final I-LivAlps workshop on social innovation held in the Valle Maira, Italy. The end of the project has produced a rich harvest.

Reaching a conclusion: whatsalp arrives in Nice

After five countries, 568 hours of walking and 66,000 metres of altitude, on 29 September 2017 the “whatsalp” group arrived in Nice after a three-month trek through the Alps. The group’s conclusions were critical in nature.

Oh...

Funfair up on the mountain

Mountain Research and Development, Vol 37, No 3: Mountain Forests and the SDGs

This Focus Issue assesses the role of mountain forests in relation to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. After an Introductory Essay, papers cover gender issues in agroforestry (Ethiopia) and community forests (Nepal), small-scale mountain farm forestry (Austria), rubber and the rural economy (China), a throughfall-exclusion experiment (Bhutan), mountain forest resilience (India), Andean forest landscape research, US federal forest productivity, rangeland property rights (Bhutan), and urban spatial growth modelling (China).

whatsalp

[Project completed] Starting 3rd of June 2017, a group of Alpine experts were hiking through Austria, Switzerland, France and Italy from Vienna to Nice in the course of the project “whatsalp”. They documented the current state of the Alps and exchanged experiences with different people on-site and on the way.

Where ideas make waves

CIPRA is a small organisation with a large network. It enables people to tackle challenges together and learn from one another – like Sandrine Percheval and Cassiano Luminati, who met for the first time at the AlpWeek in Grassau/D.

Going further, together

There is an African saying that goes: “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.” And the trail to sustainable development in the Alps and to preserving the alpine natural environment, its habitat and its economic area is a very long one indeed. It is one the Alliance in the Alps network of municipalities and CIPRA International have been trekking along together since 1997.

A blessing and a curse

Some places are deserted, others are overrun by tourists. The two Slovenian municipalities of Bled and Bohinj in the Triglav National Park were faced with the latter situation, as they struggled with masses of cars this summer.

A pioneering region for a carbon-neutral economy and life

The economy of the Alps is to become greener. To make sure it takes on this colour, the comprehensive action programme “Greening the Economy in the Alpine Region” has been launched.

Salvation for the bees?

The European Commission is discussing the use of neonicotinoids. The damage caused by these insecticides also strongly affects bees.

Rivers connect people

The partners of the Spare Project are as diverse as they are at home in different Alpine countries, comprising as they do a university, two research agencies, two official bodies, a regional office, and two environmental organisations. Together they demonstrate how river management can be improved above and beyond administrative, cultural and technical boundaries.

A wind of change for municipalities

At the Nagelfluhkette Nature Park/A, young people are teaching primary schoolchildren for a day. Together, they study water courses as a habitat for plants and animals. In l’Argentière-la-Bessée/F, another group is creating an adventure trail to the entrance of a silver mine.

Space is finite

In 2016 CIPRA examined spatial planning from various perspectives. With the alpMonitor project for instance, it demonstrated under the Spatial Planning rubric how such processes can be tackled at the municipal level and what the potential stumbling blocks might be.

Awakening and change

“Us first” was the pervasive motto in 2016, more so than ever before. In the light of a global political and social climate of isolation it is all the more important for CIPRA to stand up for values such as solidarity, co-operation, environmental protection, and justice.

Turning risks into opportunities

On this October afternoon in the Swiss region of Surselva, the hotel in Vals is a hive of activity as a group of people discuss and gesticulate in German and Romansh. They’re engaged in an exchange of views on the opportunities, risks, and future of the valley in the wake of climate change.

Mobility as a state of mind

“People very quickly forget about a traffic jam providing it doesn’t lasts longer than ten minutes.” 140 pairs of eyes were focused on the speaker Gerhard Fehr. At the international symposium on commuter mobility in Hard, Austria, in mid-November, Mr Fehr, a behavioural economist, was showing his audience why the choice of means of transport is often not a rational decision.

Together against transit traffic

CIPRA Italy. While most of Italy is surrounded by the Mediterranean, to the north the country is encircled by a wide arc formed by the Alps. Goods shipped to Italy via sea routes are distributed onwards throughout Europe from Italy, with European products shipped out through Italian ports.

Laughing, walking and learning from each other

CIPRA Slovenia. Increasingly, children are now being driven to school by their parents. CIPRA Slovenia is working to counter that trend by working with the Institute for Spatial Policies and the Association for Sustainable Development. And thanks to the Pedibus, schoolchildren get to exercise – and have more opportunities for contact with children of the same age.

The Alpine Rhine fête

CIPRA Liechtenstein. Taming Europe’s biggest torrent began some two hundred years ago. Today, the Alpine Rhine is a canal, its course lined for the most part by intensively used farmland and residual pockets of wetland forest.

Think globally, act locally

CIPRA France. The European Strategy for the Alps (Eusalp) examines answers to challenges such as demographic change, economic globalisation, climate change, and energy transition.

Creating and testing new ways

Climate change, scarce resources, development pressures: there is a global need for new ways and forms of social and economic cohabitation. The Alps too are the setting for social innovations.

A beacon for sustainable tourism

The second weekend in August will once again see the “Fire across the Alps” burning. In this, the UN Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, these watch-fires are intended to stimulate ideas as to the necessary changes for tourism in the Alps.

Give youth a voice! How youth participation can be encouraged in the Alpine space

How can young people become more involved in political processes? What good examples already exist for this? These questions were the central issues at a workshop held in the context of the GaYA project in Bozen/Bolzano.

Pesticides: a tug of war

Pesticides damage the environment, threaten useful species like bees, pollute the water in the Alps, while some are suspected of causing cancer. They nevertheless appear to be indispensable in conventional agriculture.

Oh...

Identity needs culture

CIPRA Switzerland. Growth-orientated regional politics in Switzerland today are aimed first and foremost at economic development and at prioritising hubs and development axes. The potential afforded by mountain regions with their diverse culture is barely recognised.

Reliable partnerships right across the Alps

CIPRA Austria, CIPRA Germany, CIPRA South Tyrol. Right now the cable car industry is all about superlatives. Indeed, the “world’s greatest glacier ski area” is to be created by linking up the ski resorts in the Austrian Pitztal and Ötztal valleys.

Spray-painting for environmental protection

CIPRA South Tyrol. Urban Green – How does the young generation imagine its city of the future?