Markus Reiterer first listens. In the first weeks of his term as Secretary-General, the new man at the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention visited various institutions, organisations and people - including CIPRA - that support sustainable development in the Alps. "I would like to have a teambuilding effect", he says. "We can best meet the challenges of the coming years and decades if all of us - the states that are parties to the convention, regions, municipalities, the Permanent Secretariat, the observer organisations and civil society - work together as a team." The Permanent Secretariat wishes in future to intervene more between various interests in Alpine policy to promote co-operation between those who in various ways support sustainable development in the Alps.
Communication is therefore a particularly important issue for Markus Reiterer. He is thus concerned with increasing the appreciation of the Alps as a space to live and work, as well as ensuring a correct understanding of the Alpine Convention - not as an instrument of prevention, but rather as an opportunity for co-operation. The Secretary-General's agenda also includes such topics as transit traffic and a European strategy for a macro-region Alps.
On 10 October 2013 Markus Reiterer will be speaking at CIPRA's annual conference in Bozen/Bolzano on the responsibility for a sustainable approach to water in the Alps. On 12 November he will be giving a talk in Brig/CH, the "Alpine Town of the Year", on conflicts between nature conservation and energy production, on the occasion of the conference as part of the European Union's recharge.green project.
Sources and further information: www.alpconv.org/en/newsevents/latest