Austria

Through the tool of the land use certificate (FNZ) the growing land consumption in Switzerland shall be limited. With the brochure "Recovering land - land use certificates in land planning" the environmental organisation Pro Natura wants to bring the discussion about this tool in the public arena.

The Austrian Ministry for Transportation Innovation and Technology is committed to the establishment of the wildlife Alps-Carpathian Corridor.

A study by the Swiss traffic research institute progtrans on plans for a Brenner railway tunnel has called into question the purpose of the project. Even if the base tunnel were to be completed by 2015, the number of trucks on the Brenner would increase by 2,000 a day by 2025.

As part of the Interreg IIIA Ländergender Project the governments of Vorarlberg/A, St. Gallen/CH and Liechtenstein plan to pool their efforts aimed at equal opportunities for men and women. The aim is to co-ordinate - and assist with - the implementation of gender mainstreaming in the regional administrations of the Lake Constance Region.

(15.12.2005) The Interreg IIIB Project "GenderAlp! Spatial Development for Women and Men" has been up and running for a year now. The Land of Salzburg/A as lead partner already has a number of project results to show. "Needs-oriented spatial planning for women and men in Salzburg" is just one of 47 partial projects by GenderAlp!

Austria's Chair of the Alpine Convention sees it as a priority task to focus more on specialist issues during the meetings of the Standing Committee in order once again to develop a greater sensibility for vital issues in the alpine region.

25 communities in Italy, Austria, Germany, France and Switzerland have come together to form the "Pearls of the Alps" network. Their objective is to combine tourist sights with the benefits of gentle mobility.

The third research symposium of the Hohe Tauern National Park/A, which was held for the first time as a transalpine conference on research into protected areas, ended on 17 September. At the conference 72 scientists from eight countries discussed a range of cross-border issues.

The Austrian Tourist Club [Österreichischer Touristenklub] recently opened the first high-alpine passive building, namely the Schiestlhaus am Hochschwab/A at 2,153 m.

The Alise project (Alps IT Service Network) is designed to provide those small and medium-sized businesses for which IT operations have become a burden with all the IT services they require directly from the Network.