Austria

CIPRA Austria, CIPRA Germany, CIPRA South Tyrol. Right now the cable car industry is all about superlatives. Indeed, the “world’s greatest glacier ski area” is to be created by linking up the ski resorts in the Austrian Pitztal and Ötztal valleys.

The Federal State of Upper Austria gave its legal opinion on the expansion of the “Höss-Wurzeralm” ski area in April. The matter is now on file.

The Gotthard Pass has seen a historic low in transalpine goods traffic since the adoption of the law governing the modal shift. In contrast, the number of trucks crossing the Brenner Pass continues to increase.

The end of 2016 saw the announcement of the winners of the 2017 “Open Alps” human rights award. This honour is given to individuals or groups who actively work for the rights of refugees, immigrants, socially disadvantaged persons and threatened minorities in Europe.

Urban areas are not often directly thought of in connection with the Alpine Convention - “the Alps are mountains, not cities” is the refrain. The Austrian city of Klagenfurt contradicts such views.

The European Union does not want to finance the Alemagna motorway: but the Italian Veneto Region is insisting on the road link to Germany.

Resistance is growing across the Alps against construction activities in pristine or largely unspoilt areas. CIPRA is making an appeal for integrative spatial planning to the Alpine states meeting this week in Murnau, Germany.

A current bone of contention between different interest groups is the priority to be given to the various uses made of the Alpine Rhine: as a farming area, as a habitat for the little ringed plover and the German tamarisk, or as a drinking water reservoir. SPARE, a new European Union project for the Alpine region, will offer assistance for the holistic management of watercourses.

Animals and plants have to migrate in order to reproduce. That involves crossing land used by human beings. Ecological networking therefore needs the support of a variety of stakeholders. CIPRA brings them together.

On Liechtenstein’s doorstep, in the Austrian town of Feldkirch, the planning process is currently underway for a gigantic road construction project in the form of the Feldkirch Urban Tunnel.