Sensitive areas, such as mountainous regions, wetlands and coastal zones are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of transport. The rapid increase of road freight transport in Europe’s sensitive areas, such as the Pyrenees, has seriously deteriorated air quality in the valleys and causes widespread noise nuisance. It also represents a safety risk and transport infrastructure is increasingly congested.
There are various instruments needed to respond to this situation. A one size fits all approach does not effectively protect sensitive areas from the negative impacts of freight transport. For practical not to mention political reasons, one single instrument is not enough.
T&E has been intensively dealing with the question of freight transport in sensitive areas since 1999. In May 2005, T&E’s project “Safe and Sustainable Freight transport” will come to an end. Freight transport in sensitive areas played an important role within the project.
Therefore, the second part of the conference is dealing with them.
The conference should raise awareness about the sensitivity of mountainous regions and the impact of transport in sensitive areas as the Pyrenees. It should provide an overview of potential instruments for sustainable freight transport in sensitive areas. Examples of good practices from the Pyrenees and the Alps should explain realistic instruments to decision makers on regional, national and European level. A main focus will be on the opportunities and limits of infrastructure building to solve transport problems in sensitive areas. The potential conflicts between scarce financial resources, different interests on regional, national and European level will be examined.