Germany

The Alpstar mid-term conference took place from April 25th to 26th 2013, in the city of Grassau in the beautiful region of the Achental.

YPAC, the Youth Parliament at the Alpine Convention, met in Sonthofen in mid-March to agree ten demands for the "Alpine Town of the Future", generating valuable publicity in the process.

The Swiss canton of Graubünden wants to hold a "sustainable" Winter Olympics in 2022. While the many open questions regarding the candidacy have stirred passions in Switzerland, Munich's candidacy is not quite so controversial. But time is pressing.

Jazu is back. Last autumn he became the first wild northern bald ibis for 400 years to leave his breeding ground near Burghausen, Bavaria: in summer he found his own way back from Tuscany.

2 million Euro will help to further develop the ecological network in Bavaria, "BayernNetzNatur". The environment Ministry gives this additional funding to at least one new nature protection project in each of Bavaria's seven provinces for 2013 and 2014.

The Olympic Winter Games 2006 have left a burdensome legacy. The idea is thus to close the loss-making bobsleigh and replace it with an indoor ski slope. Is Turin simply throwing good money after bad?

The constitutional court of Bavaria has received a complaint against the classification of land for development demanding, for the first time, compliance with the Alpine Convention. The court ruling could significantly change how the Alps are protected in Bavaria.

The Lech river in Bavaria/D is already being used on a massive scale for electricity generation, and only the stretch at Augsburg/D remains undeveloped. But even this section of the river could very soon become the site of a hydroelectric power plant. The expansion plans are not an isolated case; rather, they reflect a trend throughout the Alps, and one that is gathering momentum.

The partners in the Econnect project invite amateurs and professional photographers to make a pictorial record of ecosystem fragmentation in the Alps. The photo contest "Clicks beyond the borders" aims to visualize the importance of ecological links in the Alps in powerful images.

CIPRA sees itself as something of a networker. And this applies to nature conservation as well. It brings officials, local authorities and scientists together, regardless of national borders. After all, animal and plant migrations don’t stop at border barriers either.