Italy

Spiked rue, glacier buttercup, saxifrage: the habitat of such alpine plants is shrinking with the glaciers, as a recent study shows. In addition to climate change, mountain plants are also suffering from nitrogen deposition.

Stephan Tischler is the new Chairman of CIPRA Austria, Elias Kindle takes over as Executive Director of CIPRA Liechtenstein. At CIPRA International Wilfried Marxer becomes Treasurer and Sofia Farina is Youth Representative on the Board, while Co-Director Barbara Wülser says goodbye.

Trees instead of parking spaces and support for the population during hot spells – with a total of 19 measures like these, the city of Merano/I is countering the effects of climate change. Experts, interest groups and young people have worked together to develop the strategy.

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”.

A picnic at a construction site, the rescue of undeveloped land and the conversion of an old barracks: three examples that rethink spatial planning in the Alps.

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.

In early January 2019 the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo submitted a joint bid, facing off with Stockholm in Sweden in the race to host the Winter Olympics. The IOC will make its decision in June.

Morbegno, in the Italian region of Lombardy, has been chosen as the 2019 «Alpine Town of the Year». It thus joins an international network that advocates future-proof urban development in the Alps.