alpMedia Newsletter - A CIPRA information service

2010-03-17

17.3.2010, summary 01/10-03/10

Energy-efficient Alpine communities and Alpine towns

Fifty - the car hire scheme from Langenegg/A: car-sharing as a way of protecting the climate in the long term.

At the end of February the Vorarlberg communities of Langenegg, Mäder and Zwischenwasser received the European Energy Award® (eea) - Gold. These communities spearhead the international award for energy-efficient communities, which evaluates some 600 towns and communities across Europe. More »

Harnessing expertise for ecological networks in the Alps

Expertise from the fields of science and practice is to be harnessed for the successful long-term networking of animal and plant habitats.

The Ecological Continuum Initiative has brought international experts together as part of a think tank whose long-term objective is to setup up an alpine-wide ecological network. The think tank provides the experts from the fields of science and practice with a framework for developing new projects to complement and follow up on existing activities such as the ECONNECT project. More »

Low-carbon travel from the UK to the ski slopes

Taking the train from London to go skiing in Sestriere/I sounds like a nightmare scenario. But, as a new specialist website proves, it's not. For a number of weeks now, avid skiers can go to www.snowcarbon.co.uk/ (en) to find the most convenient train journeys to take them from London/UK to the Alps or the Pyrenees to go skiing. More »

How do people perceive food products from European mountain regions?

The EuroMarc project looked at this very question from February 2007 to January 2010 and it has now published its findings. Ten teams carried out surveys among consumers, retailers and local initiatives in six European countries (France, Norway, Austria, Romania, Scotland and Slovenia). More »

Warmest decade for at least 130 years

The last ten years will go on record as by far the warmest in the alpine region since systematic records began. In Germany even the "cool" year 2004 with an average temperature of 9.0 degrees centigrade was well above the climatological mean for Germany, at 8.2 degrees. More »

Green light for deer and lynx in the Alpine-Carpathian Corridor

In future, wild animals will be able to move more easily between the Alps and the adjoining Carpathian Mountains. That is the objective of the recently initiated cross-border project Alpine-Carpathian Corridor. The EU is providing approximately 2 million Euros for it. More »

Turin/I: Olympic sports facilities left to waste away

Since the close of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin many of the sports facilities and installations have been left abandoned. The five ski jumps in Pragelato, for example, for which the building costs exceeded 34 million Euros, are now closed off and unused. More »

The new CIPRA compacts Traffic and Spatial Planning are on-line

The results of the climate protection measures taken in the areas of 'Traffic' and 'Spatial Planning' are now accessible on-line. At www.cipra.org/en/cc.alps/results-and-products/compacts/compacts-1/?set_language=en (de/en) both of the background reports - so-called 'CIPRA compacts' - 'Traffic and Climate Change' and 'Spatial Planning and Climate Change' can be downloaded. More »

Hiking right across the Alps

The recently published book Via Alpina - 2500 kilometres from one coast to another (Via Alpina - 2'500 kilomètres d'une mer à l'autre) recounts the adventure of crossing the entire Alpine range. In 2007 Vincent Tornay followed the Via Alpina Red Trail for a total of 119 days in search of the people and landscapes that make up the Alps of today. He covered 2500 km and 124,000 metres of difference in altitude as he hiked through the eight Alpine states, from the Adriatic coastline to Monaco. More »

Miscellaneous

Keeping water-related projects flowing - Awards for a precious resource
Two awards are now up for grabs for projects in the water sector. The International ReSource Award for Sustainable Watershed Management aims to promote innovative projects with regional measures aimed at protecting water as a resource. The Award is open to projects that have a pioneering character in the local context (cultural, institutional or technological). More »

Publication: mountains and climate change
The English-language Mountains and Climate Change was published recently and focused on mountains around the world and the effects of climate change. It documents the latest findings on climate change in the mountains of the world and its impact on water, glaciers, natural hazards, biodiversity, food security and migration. More »

Restoring the web of life: a new brochure designed to help you understand ecological networks
What is an ecological network? How can you create one and who does it involve? What are their roles? These are just some of the questions to which the recently published brochure Restoring the web of life: ecological network for more biodiversity in the Alps provides answers. More »

Global warming increases frequency and extent of flood catastrophes in the Alps
In an article published in the magazine Geophysical Research Letters researchers at Italy's Politecnico University in Turin recently confirmed that more frequent and more extensive floods in mountain areas were one of the consequences of global warming. More »

Agenda

Conference / Congress: Environmental protection and mountains . 27.4.2010 – 28.4.2010. Innsbruck/A. Language: en. Organisation: Ständiges Sekretariat der Alpenkonvention, Goldenes Dachl, Herzog-Friedrich-Straße 15, Innsbruck/A.
Info: www.alpconv.org/NR/rdonlyres/FBD29AC6-CFF3-4071-A186-0628956CBD58/0/Leaflet_v11.pdf.

Conference / Congress: European Geosciences Union - General Assembly 2010. 2.5.2010 – 7.5.2010. Vienna/A. Language: en. Organisation: European Geosciences Union EGU, EGU Office Strasbourg c/o E.O.S.T., 5, rue René Descartes, Strasbourg Cedex/F.
Info: meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2010/session/2551/Mountain+Soils.

Conference / Congress: MTNCLIM 2010. 7.6.2010 – 10.6.2010. Blue River/USA. Language: en.
Info: www.fs.fed.us/psw/mtnclim/.

Workshop / Seminar: Protecting Mountain Biodiversity. 9.7.2010 – 23.7.2010. Italien Alps. Language: en. Organisation: Mountain Partnership Secretariat, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Signora Dr. Rosalaura Romeo, Programme Officer, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, Rome/I.
Info: www.ipromo-school.it/en/course2010/courseprogramme2010.pdf.

Conference / Congress: Global Change and the World's Mountains. 26.9.2010 – 30.9.2010. Perth/AU. Language: en. Organisation: Mountain Research Initiative MRI, c/o Institute of Geography, University of Berne, Erlachstrasse 9a, Bern/CH.
Info: www.perth.ac.uk/specialistcentres/cms/Conferences/Perth2010/Pages/default.aspx.

Strange but true!

…Can you imagine ski resorts in the Alps where people would go to cycle? Pretty unlikely? Maybe, but perhaps not for much longer…

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