Switzerland

The little bat somehow looked different. Filigree in form, brownish in colour, and with a ringed wing it huddled in the corner of the nesting box on the chestnut tree. Nicola Zambelli put on his gloves and pulled gently on the wing tip to examine the ring.

Melting glaciers create new lakes in the Alps. This creates new tourism potential and new risks, such as floods and landslides, for the inhabitants of the valleys. Where and when are such lakes created? Who owns them and who is responsible for them?

The "Las-Alps Infoteca" project was launched at the end of April in Chur/CH. In the coming five years, a competence centre will be established for media products that are relevant to the Alps. The project will be realized in two phases: in the first phase the focus will be on the provision of media products, in the second the centre will also produce and market its own products.

The Swiss National Park (SNP) is currently developing a web based tool to analyze barriers and corridors of the large pilot region Rhaetian Triangle. Furthermore, two local initiatives are concretely acting for the restoration of ecological connectivity. The new map application will allow comparing a freely defined area with other areas in the neighbourhood and identifying the fields with high need of action according to selected indices.

The village of Tenna in the Safien valley of the Swiss canton Graubünden is working hard on a world premiere. The Skilift Tenna cooperative has decided to replace an ancient ski lift by the first solar-powered ski lift ever.

Two awards are now up for grabs for projects in the water sector. The International ReSource Award for Sustainable Watershed Management aims to promote innovative projects with regional measures aimed at protecting water as a resource. The Award is open to projects that have a pioneering character in the local context (cultural, institutional or technological).