News
Point of view: A building plan for a resilient society
The corona crisis has broken our lives into pieces: relationships, working models, leisure and consumerism are loose building blocks. It is still unclear how we will reassemble them. We now have the chance to draw up a new building plan that is fit for the future, says Barbara Wülser, Co-Executive Director of CIPRA International.
Via Alpina: 20 years of long-distance hiking
For 20 years, the cross-border long-distance hiking trail known as the “Via Alpina” has connected all eight Alpine countries from Trieste to Monaco. It connects people, living spaces and natural areas along five routes, not only physically but also symbolically.
The landscape that moves CIPRA
From a Slovenian mountain pass, via a dying glacier in Switzerland, to a French shepherd's path: in its Annual Report 2019 CIPRA International shows how landscapes and their stories move people.
Point of view: Water needs no borders – do we?
So far, sufficient water is available in the Alpine regions. If there is to be enough for everyone in the future, despite climate change, water must be treated as a common Alpine resource across national borders, says Marion Ebster, Project Manager at CIPRA International.
Tourism after the ski lift
Milder and milder winters are forcing ski resorts to invest in expensive snowmaking and lift facilities – an arms race in which many are no longer able to compete. Some places in the Alps have already found alternatives to skiing.
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.
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.
Fit for work
Change to bus, train, bike or e-bike: pilot companies in the Alpenrhein-Bodensee-Hochrhein region are testing healthy ways to work in the three-year Interreg project Amigo.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"We Stay on the Ground"
Explore the Alps by train: For the "Youth Alpine Interrail" participants, flight-free travel is a varied adventure.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Starting signal for the Alpine Ticket
In summer, 100 young people are travelling sustainably through the Alps with the “Youth Alpine Interrail”. At the beginning of June they met for a kick-off in Feldkirch, Austria and forged travel plans together.
Cultural laboratory Alps
Screeching saws, purring guitars, sizzling pans – that’s the sound of culture in the Alps. The CIPRA Annual Symposium on 25 and 26 October in Altdorf, Switzerland will focus on the impact of culture and how it can contribute to sustainable development.
Déjà-vu: Winter Olympic Games in Italy
Twenty years after the 2006 Games in Turin, the 2026 Winter Olympics return to the Italian Alps. The venues are jubilant and expectations are high. But a look at past games warns us to be cautious, because all too often they have merely left behind debts and ruined buildings.
Making politics with fire
From the Trift Glacier in Switzerland to the Vrsič Pass in Slovenia, around 30 “Fires in the Alps” will burn across the Alpine peaks on 10 August 2019. People from all Alpine countries are thus setting a common sign for living waters and the preservation of the natural and cultural heritage of the Alps.