The Alpine Network of Protected Areas is organising two international workshops as part of the co-operation project between the Alps and the Carpathians. The first workshop entitled Integrated Management of Protected Areas is to be held at the Mala Fatra National Park in Slovakia from 1 to 3 June.
Alps / Europe
A new study by WWF Italy shows that snowfall in the Italian Alps has decreased by 20% over the past thirty years and looks at the consequences. The tourism industry, which has been a cash cow for many alpine regions, has come to rely exclusively on artificial snow installations in many cases.
Together with nine partners from all the alpine countries CIPRA, the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps (Schaan/FL), has set itself the aim of establishing an alpine-wide network of small and medium-sized businesses as part of the NENA Project and promote sustainability-oriented enterprises. The idea of an alpine-wide network of enterprises came about as part of CIPRA's Future in the Alps project.
On 24 February the Italian Apennine mountain range was endowed with a new protection and management instrument following the signing of the Apennines Convention at the political level.
As a research report the book Die Alpen! Les Alpes! published by Jon Mathieu and Simona Boscani Leoni looks at the way in which the Alps have been perceived in European cultural history since the Renaissance. The research project comprises a Swiss and an international section and proceeds from the assumption that the Alpine discourse differs more from one country to the next than was previously thought.
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.
The Montagnalibri mountain book fair is being held in Trento/I between 29 April and 7 May for the 20th time. Book presentations and meetings, discussions and round tables with authors, mountaineers and connoisseurs of Alpine history are to be held daily.
In Turin/I on 22 February representatives of civilian society from the mountain regions of the Piedmont presented their signed Piemonte Alpine Treaty. The document is the result of intensive debate and discussions, and denounces the political, economic and cultural discrimination of the Piedmont mountain regions compared with the power centres in the pre-Alps and cities.
The Mountain Research Initiative has published two new English publications on the subject of climate change.
Back when Turin was running as a candidate to host the Winter Olympics, Piedmont representatives of environmental associations criticised the candidature for its lack of environment-related issues.