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The battle for Alpine water

A revival of the hydropower boom: 70 years ago, many Alpine rivers were dammed for the benefit of power stations, while valuable high valleys were built over. Today, new requirements are threatening their ecological functions. In view of the dwindling glaciers and increasing utilisation demands, a distribution battle is looming.

Getting stones rolling

Workshops, excursions, art cards, podcasts: the results of the CIPRA “SteinReich” project, which focused on drystone walls and cairns, are diverse and tangible.

10 Key Concepts of the Pastoral economy

Paths to sustainable agriculture

The first Utopia hike organised by the umbrella organisation for nature and environmental protection in its function as CIPRA South Tyrol took place on Wednesday, 7 August 2024. On this occasion, the functioning utopia of organic vegetable cultivation in the Puster Valley was visited on two farms.

A management model for Jelovica

Restoring a damaged forest and other good practices: The JeloviZa project implemented a management model for a sensible natural area in Slovenia.

After the flood

What role could biosphere reserves play in dealing with climate risks? This was the subject of an international workshop organised by the MultiBios project in Bad Kleinkirchheim/A at the beginning of April 2024, which included a site visit to the Gegendtal valley that was affected by heavy rainfall and flooding two years ago.

Challenges for alpine agriculture

Loss of biodiversity, climate change, migration: just some of the problems affecting the Alpine region. The concept of agroecology offers sustainable solutions - but we have to implement them together.

Natural diversity through stones

What do the large woolly bee, the protected fire-bellied toad, the busy ant and the white stonecrop have in common? They all feel right at home in and around cairns, which CIPRA’s “StoneRich” project is creating in seven pilot regions.

UNESCO recognizes Alpine season as cultural heritage

In December 2023, UNESCO added the “Alpine season” to its Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Known for centuries in Switzerland and neighbouring countries, the Alpine season remains alive and well thanks to its many different forms.

Dialogues on wolves – strengthening shepherds’ networks in the Alps

[Completed] A project that promotes exchanges of knowledge across national and linguistic borders between shepherds in the Alpine region.

Global Challenges in Mountain Agropastoral Systems

The LIFE PASTORALP final conference “GLOBAL CHALLENGES IN MOUNTAIN AGROPASTORAL SYSTEMS – Scientific evidence on impacts, adaptation and policies”, aims at bringing together researchers, policy makers, agriculture and extension technicians, farmers and students to share and discuss current and emerging issues related to climate-driven global changes in mountain agropastoral systems. The debate on these issues, hosted in the heart of the Alps, will be fostered by experiences from all Europe and mountain environments and will give rise to new ideas and proposals to be spread and shared globally.

Bon Appétit!

[Project completed] From the field to the plate: In the "Bon Appétit!" project, young people dig into the earth, taste and process regional products and visit farms in their region. They experience how the food on their plate shapes the landscape around them.

Natura 2000 site under pressure

Too many visitors are putting a strain on nature in the Trois Becs/F area and pushing the infrastructure to its limits. A study by CIPRA France proposes measures, including on-site personal sensitisation and greater communication.

Alps in transition

The ecological transition is already happening in the Alps – and we are in the middle of it. The AlpWeek 2022 from 5 to 7 September 2022 in Brig-Glis/CH will bring together citizens and decision-makers to discuss the many aspects of transformation in the Alps. CIPRA is co-organiser of the international event.

Ecological and community areas

With its ecological commons zone (“Zone d'écologie communale”, ZEC), the Free Quarter of Lentillères in Dijon/F invents a legal tool to legalise land occupation and thus prevent construction.

Using less soil

Puy-Saint-André in the French Alps has reduced the buildable municipal area by confiscating "ownerless" land, is saving space thanks to community housing projects and promoting the supply of local food by means of pasture associations.

Waale, Suonen, Wasserleiten

Vital for the cultural landscape and biodiversity, and the epitome of community resource management: an application to UNESCO aims to turn traditional irrigation practices into an intangible cultural heritage asset.

Alpine-wide network for shepherds

What are the possibilities and challenges for a cross-border organisation for shepherds in the Alps? CIPRA held an online conference on 27 January 2022 with representatives from agricultural colleges, national authorities, nature conservation groups and shepherds' organisations to find answers.

Online conference: Building an Alpine-wide web of shepherding organisations

The return of large carnivores in the Alps has many consequences on alpine farming and on the work and practises of shepherding. CIPRA International invites representatives from shepherding organisations in the Alpine region, representatives from agricultural schools and organisations as well as responsible authorities that have developed curriculums for herders to a virtual conference to discuss needs and opportunities for a cross-border shepherd organisation.

Saving:Soils

[Project completed] With its project “Saving:Soils”, CIPRA is working for a trend reversal in the use of land in peri-urban areas in order to put scientific findings into practice, make pilot examples visible and encourage imitation.

Abandoned and uncultivated

Remote mountain villages in Piedmont/I have been struggling with heavy emigration for years. The region is now supporting people moving back to the mountains. A study from Austria shows how endangered Alpine agriculture actually is.

8th Report on the State of the Alps: Air quality in the Alps

Where pesticides do not belong

On children’s playgrounds, in schoolyards and at the marketplace: researchers from Italy, Austria and Germany detect 32 different agricultural poisons in public places in South Tyrol.

Developing Alpine culinary arts

The first competence centre for regional culinary arts in the Alps opened in autumn 2020 with the “Culinarium Alpinum” in Stans/CH, showing how the cooperation of various players is revitalising and developing Alpine food culture.

Quality from the mountains

Cheese, meat and honey – these and other products from the mountains must meet certain EU requirements to be allowed to bear the “mountain product” quality label, introduced by the EU in 2014. A recent study shows whether and how this term has become established.

Bees: small in size, big in effect

Why we need honey, pollinators and biodiversity: This question is the subject of the themed issue of SzeneAlpen, to be published in March 2020.

How diversity is lost

Intensive agriculture and climate change: a recent study from Austria shows how much influence both have on the loss of biodiversity in Alpine regions.

Mountain Research and Development Vol 38, No 4: Food Security and Sustainable Development in Mountains

Four papers present opportunities and challenges for sustainable food systems worldwide and in Nepal, Pakistan, and Ladakh. Others explore the contribution of caterpillar fungus to livelihoods in India, the economics of walnut forests in Kyrgyzstan, dwarf pine cover in Slovakia, bacteriological characteristics of drinking water in Nepal, the impact of changing glacier conditions on mountaineering in New Zealand and of ski tourism on wildlife in Poland, and land use dynamics in the Argentinian puna.

Rejuvenation of mountain farms

Fewer and fewer young people want to become farmers. If no one is willing to inherit and take on the running of a farm, it will close. There is a lack of both recognition and incentives – from EU policy through to searching for partners.

Poisoned playgrounds

A study proves the presence of pesticides on children's playgrounds in South Tyrol. The provincial government has taken up a defensive posture.