One of CIPRA’s overriding tasks is to look after its fabrics and ensure their further development – based on the shared idea of sustainable development, of learning from one another and motivating each another: through cooperation with environmental associations, with the Alliance in the Alps, with ALPARC, the Alpine Network of Protected Areas, and with ISCAR, the International Scientifi c Committee for Alpine Research. Networks fl ourish where their participants nourish them and also benefit from them – from useful information, interesting experiences and new contacts. The knowledge that people elsewhere are developing solutions for problems that sometimes seem insuperable is a source of strength for one’s own activities.