France

Una montagna per tutti (a mountain for everyone) is the name of an Interreg project between Italy and France that was launched only recently and focuses on people with disabilities.

The Alpine Network of Protected Areas is celebrating its 10th anniversary as part of the international conference on "Alpine Protected Areas: Between History, Development and Challenges".

Anyone who comes across unused installations or buildings while out hiking or mountaineering in the Swiss Alps should take part in the Wilderness Olympics 2005 and notify Mountain Wilderness (MW) of their "find".

Following the decision taken by the Chamber of Deputies on 10 March, the French Senate approved ratification of the remaining protocols to the Alpine Convention in a unanimous vote with just one abstention on 12 May.

In 2004 France's winter sport resorts invested 348 million euros - more than ever before - in refurbishment and upgrade measures. In the last ten years, such investments have increased by about 200 percent compared with only 50 percent for ski area turnover. The number of skier days per season is now stagnating at 63 million.

The French association for regional planning and rural development has recently published a white paper on the subject of land consumption as a result of urbanisation, entitled "The End of the Landscape?". More and more arable land is being built up with residential buildings and industrial parks, and land consumption is progressing at an alarming pace.

Italy's Environment Minister presented the Mountains in the Mediterranean Region Project at the IUCN Congress held in Bangkok from 17 to 25 November.

The authorities of the département of Haute-Savoie/F is presenting an award for the most sustainable tourist project as part of the 6th Tourism Summit of Chamonix Mont-Blanc.

The French mountain organisation Montanea is organising an international conference on "Cities in the Mountains" together with the Alpe magazine. It is to be held at the Chambéry Conference Centre on 29 June. Admission is free. The registration deadline is 22 June. The conference will offer simultaneous interpretation in French, German and Italian.

The first European network for nanobiotechnology, Nano2life, is being co-ordinated in Grenoble/F since February 2. So after Paris Grenoble is now the second largest research centre in France, with 18,200 people working in 200 laboratories.