Switzerland

The Governmental Conference of Alpine Cantons (GCAC) has launched the Swiss Mountain Water Award, which is endowed with a total of CHF 50,000. The objective of the competition is to initiate and promote practical water projects capable of making a substantial contribution to increased net output in the mountain areas of Switzerland in commercial, ecological, social and/or institutional terms.

CIPRA's annual conference will be held in Brig/CH on 22 - 24 September. The subject of the 2005 conference is Alpine cities and their role as sustainability actors, with a focus on the following main aspects: - design, management and optimization of relations between Alpine cities and the surrounding areas; - networking, alliances and enhanced co-operation and synergies among Alpine cities to achieve effective positioning in the face of competition from other European locations.

A new WWF study shows that the artificial high-water (surges) and low-water (sinks) caused daily by hydraulic power plants are having disastrous repercussions on the ecosystem of running water.

A new study by Zurich University using satellite images to analyse the surface area of 930 glaciers has shown that Switzerland's glaciers lost around 18% of their surface area between 1985 and 2000.

Storm damage does not pose a threat to the long-term conservation of Switzerland's forests; rather it contributes to forest renewal and promotes biodiversity.

The Ibex Label is to be used to certify Swiss hotel establishments which excel through particularly sustainable and social management. Depending on achievements one to five of these Ibexes are to be awarded by the Association for Economy, Ecology and Society.

The "Biodiversität in der Schweiz" (Biodiversity in Switzerland) study published by the Biodiversity Forum Switzerland has concluded that genetic diversity and biodiversity are more at risk in Switzerland than in most other European countries.

More and more migratory birds are falling prey to night-time lighting conditions as they fly south. A closed cover of low-lying fog such as the one that prevailed over large areas of Switzerland in mid-October seriously disrupts the migratory birds' ability to orientate themselves; combined with towns and villages that are brightly lit at night it can represent a death trap for the birds.

According to the Swiss Federal Office for Transport total costs of Switzerland's "New Alps Transversal Route" (NEAT) are likely to be CHF 302 m higher than calculated in the summer, due essentially to geological fault zones, uncertainties about the planned route and costly rail securing techniques.

At the Alpine Week 2004 in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps (CIPRA) presented its new project entitled "Future in the Alps", a broad-based project aimed at promoting sustainable development in the alpine region.