Alpine Network of Protected Areas - "ALPARC"
Presentation
The Alpine Network brings together all large protected areas (over 100 hectares) with field workers and activities (land management, managing the general public). For the last 10 years, the Network has facilitated a wealth of close contacts between the Alpine parks, nature reserves, biosphere reserves, quiet zones and many other kinds of protected areas, not to mention the contributions from nature conservation agencies and institutions, local stakeholders, local residents and scientific experts.
The Alpine Network of Protected Areas is an official tool of the Alpine Convention
Main task of the Alpine Network is based on Article 12 of the protocol on "Nature conservation and the landscape management" of the Alpine Convention :
ARTICLE 12: " The contracting parties take adequate measures to establish a network of existing national and transboundary protected areas, of biotopes and other protected elements or those to be protected. They commit themselves to harmonize the objectives and applicable measures in transboundary protected areas. " Protocol 12
Objectives
The aim of the Alpine Network of Protected Areas is to pool expertise, techniques, and methods used by the managers of Alpine protected areas. It promotes cooperation in the following areas:
Conservation and management of the Alpine protected areas and their natural ressources, habitats and indigenous species while complying with the international agreements and guidelines in force, particularly the provisions for implementing the NATURA 2000 network,
Developing tourism that is managed in tandem with local heritage conservation and the regional economic programme,
Supporting mountain agriculture and forestry whilst at the same time maintaining biodiversity,
Raising awareness, informing and educating the general public and the local population about the natural and cultural assets of the Alps.
It also seeks to encourage cooperation on developing communication tools, on European projects (INTERREG, LIFE, …) and on education and cooperation tools for the Alpine protected areas.
Map
Map of the Alpine Protected Areas / 2005
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At present, the map of the Alpine protected areas and the corresponding database cover over 800 protected areas > 100 hectares in the 8 Alpine countries, which represents about 23% of the Alpine Convention Area.
The map is available in paper in A4 format or as a poster.
Link
More information on ALPARC homepage : www.alparc.org
Contact