Slovenia

Explore the Alps by train: For the "Youth Alpine Interrail" participants, flight-free travel is a varied adventure.

Building raised plant beds, converting parking spaces, replacing plastic bottles: at the end of the local project, young people from Schaan/LI travelled by train to Maribor/Sl and presented their actions aimed at a more sustainable lifestyle.

A picnic at a construction site, the rescue of undeveloped land and the conversion of an old barracks: three examples that rethink spatial planning in the Alps.

The guardians of the landscape are the people who live there. They must be involved in the decision-making and development processes, says Špela Berlot, Managing Director of CIPRA Slovenia.

In order to revive vacant areas and buildings, four Alpine towns have joined forces in the "Tour des Villes" project. Mutual and cross-border exchange of knowledge and ideas were in the foreground during the duration of the project.

Caught between the difficulties of growth and the quest for sustainability, tourism has a polarising effect. At the end of May 2018 over 200 participants at a conference in Bled, Slovenia discussed how Alpine tourism and the quality of life can complement one another. The event was staged by CIPRA together with the “Alliance in the Alps”.

Fewer and fewer young people want to become farmers. If no one is willing to inherit and take on the running of a farm, it will close. There is a lack of both recognition and incentives – from EU policy through to searching for partners.

Few topics provoke such heated debates as Alpine tourism. At the end of May 2018 CIPRA International and the «Alliance in the Alps» network of municipalities will be providing an opportunity to exchange ideas and opinions in Bled, Slovenia.

Like many other rural areas, the Koroška region of northern Slovenia also has to battle against depopulation. Various measures and ideas now aim to persuade young people to stay.