Journalists blog about their Alpine tour
07.07.2016
The first blog entries of the journalists who participated in the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention’s ‘We are Alps’ tour are now online. On 29 June - 5 July 2016, ten journalists crossed the Alps with the aim of raising awareness on the challenges and opportunities of its region and on the Alpine Convention as a toolbox for the balanced development of a territory shared by eight countries. This year’s focus was on the topic of ‘Alpine Green Economy’.
Throughout the tour the group met various people from the Alps – academics, civil society representatives, business people, workers, farmers and government officials, among others. On the week-long excursion from Innsbruck, Austria, to Gorizia, Italy, the journalists used sustainable means of transport, including trains, buses and bicycles, and a part of the tour was done on foot.
Activities on the topic of Green Economy in the Alps, including energy efficiency in building, renewable energy production, sustainable use of natural resources, ecosystem services and natural capital-based economy and overall economic development as the basis for a good quality life in the Alps, were carried out in Austria, Germany, Italy and Slovenia. Participants met the actors of flagship projects contributing to innovative approaches on topics such as water and forest management, spatial planning, transport, tourism, farming, energy production and savings and many more. Alpine green economy is also the topic of the upcoming Report on the State of the Alps that will be presented to the Alpine ministers in October.
Here are two blog excerpts by one of the journalists, Maja Prijatelj Videmšek:
“Day 1 - Have you already heard about the Alpine Convention? If you are a citizen of the [European Union], there is a high probability that you live in its perimeter, even if you are not aware of this. Alpine Convention is an international treaty for the protection and the sustainable development of the Alps, a home of 14,2 million people in eight countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovenia and Switzerland). They share diverse beauty of snow covered peaks, Alpine meadows and wild rivers, but at the same time face similar threats and challenges. The Alpine region is experiencing climate change faster than other parts of Europe. The average temperature increase is already twice as high as in the Northern hemisphere.
With this worrying fact in mind Markus Reiterer, Secretary General of the Alpine Convention, welcomed us at the beginning of seven days trip, starting in the capital of Tyrol and ending in Nova Gorica/Gorizia, a city shared by Slovenia and Italy.”
“Day 3 - The mountaineering village of Ramsau is even more beautiful in the blissful cloudless morning than in the evening light. From every corner it offers postcard views, and painters from every corner of Europe knew this already in the 19th century. One can walk along a path seeded with replicas of original paintings of landscape and houses and compare the images in pictures with the present situation.
One of the commitments of mountaineering villages is the protection of biodiversity, and part of this is also the protection of traditional Alpine farming species, such as the black Alpine pig. It was once a common part of mountain farming in the western Alps, but it almost disappeared during the 20th century, when massive scale food production prevailed. But dedicated breeders from South Tyrol and Switzerland have reestablished the breed in Italy, and it is now expanding again in the neighbouring countries. In Ramsau we visited one of only two breeders of black Alpine pigs in Germany. He is one of the partners in the project of reintroduction of this breed to the Alps.”
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Photo: Alpine Convention
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