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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.

Salvation for the bees?

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

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.

Wolves once more in the firing line

Downgrading the protected status of the wolf, control, even wolf-free zones: these are some of the demands of the Alpine farming federations in the Alpine regions as part of the fitness check conducted on the Fauna Flora Habitat (FFH) directive. Nature conservation organisations respond.

Victory and defeat for new protected areas

New protected areas are valuable for biodiversity, with many also intended to boost the local economy. There are nevertheless frequent reservations.

Genetic engineering: sinister passengers in the Alps

In Switzerland genetically modified rapeseed is spreading in uncontrolled fashion. Yet its cultivation and use for feeding have been prohibited there since 2008. How is it that such rape is appearing in places where it has no right to be?

The future of farming in the mountains

The European Union is negotiating the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). If the "Alliance for Agriculture and Nature Protection in the Alpine Regions" has its way, farming in the mountains will be given particular consideration. The alliance has now submitted its catalogue of demands.

cc.alps: CIPRA's demands for agriculture

The agricultural sector is directly affected by climate change impacts but it also contributes to the release of greenhouse gases (GHG) and rising concentrations of GHG in the atmosphere. A sustainable climate response strategy in the field of agriculture involves anticipating, planning and long-term thinking from farm level to transnational level. Prominent fields of activity are sustainable land and soil management, sustainable water management, managing manure and soil carbon as well as organic agriculture as an overall strategy. As agriculture is a highly subsidized economic sector, subvention policy can be used as a lever to guide the sector to sustainability and climate neutrality.

Common Agricultural Policy for the Alps

A new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is being negotiated in Brussels/BE. And as the CAP is also to take account of the particular conditions of agriculture in the Alps, in April the ministers of the Alpine states drew up a declaration at the International Mountain Region Conference in Oberammergau/D.

European Agro-Biodiversity Day

The European Agro-biodiversity Day (EAD) will take place on 29th September 2009 under the motto "Arca-Net - the European Ark Network".

Latest update on ecological networks in the Alpine region

CIPRA has just expanded and updated its online dossier on "Relevant Instruments Relating to Ecological Networks in the Alpine Region".

Latest issue of the Journal of Alpine Research

The latest publication in the bilingual series Journal of Alpine Research comprises four specialist articles on different topical issues. The first feature deals with the rivalry for public commodities, illustrated with the specific example of an irrigation system in northern Italy.

Cashmere goats for the Aosta Valley

Italy's Aosta Valley is to introduce cashmere goats in a bid to start a breeding project. The regional office for agriculture states that the goats can be kept outdoors all year round and are happy to graze even on difficult terrain.

Rail tunnel ground water to heat a tropical greenhouse

In the future, the ground water that drains from the Lötschberg Base Tunnel at a temperature of 20°C will be piped into a tropical greenhouse which is to be built at the northern portal in Frutigen/CH to produce fish and tropical fruit, and also to heat the administration building.

Maps of the Alps available for download from the EURAC Project homepage

The homepage of the project entitled AGRALP - Development of Mountain Areas ( www.eurac.edu/agralp ) has been restructured and greatly expanded to offer some 200 theme-based maps for downloading.

Budoia: Lots of interest in (and enthusiasm for) the organic canteen

In spite of the difficulties Budoia is pushing ahead with the school canteen project, driven by the enthusiasm of parents, teachers and children. Thanks to the prize money from the Future in the Alps competition it has been possible to continue promoting the Project among the families and maintaining the education on nutrition among the schoolchildren.

New handbook on sustainable agriculture in the Alps

The new "Guidelines for promoting sustainable agriculture in Alpine mountain regions" in four languages (de/fr/it/en) contains numerous recommendations for the planning and implementation of projects and measures aimed at promoting sustainable agriculture in Alpine mountain regions.

Is mountain milk more valuable?

For the first time in Switzerland, the price that consumers are ready to pay for milk from mountain areas was determined based on customer surveys.

European Charter of Mountain Quality Food Products

(12.01.2006) The European Charter for Mountain Quality Food Products was officially signed in the European Parliament in Brussels on 7 December 2005. The signatories, which include organisations from France, Italy, Switzerland and Slovenia, undertake to protect - and promote the sale of - quality food products from mountain regions.

International conference on matriarchy and mountains

On 13 and 14 December 2003 the Centro Multipolare per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile (multipolar centre for sustainable development) in Sardagna/I organised the 5th International Mountain Conference, with the theme of "Matriarchy and Mountains".

Printed version of the monitoring study Agricultural Genetic Resources in the Alps now available

The Monitoring Institute for Rare Breeds and Seeds in Europe has just issued the printed version of its publication Agricultural Genetic Resources in the Alps.

New publication: EU Agricultural Policy and the Environment in the Alps

The Alpine Environment Department of the European Academy in Bolzano has just published a new work entitled The EU Agricultural Policy and the Environment - Evaluation of the Alpine Region. It looks at the connections between agricultural policy, agriculture and the environment in the Alps, all of which were analysed by an interdisciplinary team of researchers. Key issues raised include: In what alpine regions is the decline of agriculture particularly severe? Where are the centres of tourism located, and which regions have the highest population density?