Marco Onida
Secretary General of the Alpine Convention
Welcome to the new Alpine Convention website!
With this website we would like to inform the public on all the activities of the “Alpine Convention World” which comprises not only of the Permanent Secretariat, but also the Alpine States with their Regions and Provinces and all the governmental and non-governmental partners which cooperate in promoting the Alpine Convention objectives. Periodically, this editorial will provide brief information and opinions on current issues in the Alps.
These past two years 2007-2008 have certainly been very eventful for the Permanent Secretariat, which has gone through an almost total renewal of its team. Six out of ten members, including the management board have been employed in this time.
Cooperation and communication have been central themes.
2008 started with the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Permanent Secretariat and the Association “Alpine City of the Year”. In May 2008, the Alpine Convention together with the Carpathian Convention signed a cooperation agreement with the Convention on Biological Diversity. As regards population and culture, numerous initiatives have been carried out (in Villach, Brda, Ostana, Monte Lussari) with the aim of spreading and discussing the declaration adopted during the Alpine Conference in 2006. With the support of the French Presidency, a seminar on climate change in the Alps took place in Bolzano focusing on the Minister’s declaration of 2006. The next Alpine Conference (March 2009) will adopt the action plan on climate change in the Alps.
Awareness raising and cooperation initiatives involving local authorities have taken place. Superalp! 2, the sustainable crossing of the Alps aimed on one hand at promoting the networks (Alliance in the Alps, Alparc, Alpine City of the Year, Via Alpina) supporting the implementation of the Alpine Convention and on the other at involving mayors and other actors at local and territorial level. The 2009 edition is already in the pipeline!
Furthermore, the Secretariat participated with info-points to numerous mountain film festivals and other events and produced a number of publications and info-brochures.
For what concerns observation and research, in 2007 the first Report on the State of the Alps on transport and mobility was published. The Second Report focusing on Water is being finalized. Furthermore, the top brass of the European Environmental Agency welcomed the Secretariat in Copenhagen to lay the foundation for close cooperation on topics of mutual interest, opening new perspectives for the development of the SOIA. Worth of notice is also the collaboration with the European Territorial Cooperation Alpine Space Programme.
Last but not least are our youth tailored activities: in 2007 and 2008 we supported two sessions of the “Youth Parliament of the Alpine Convention”, which will be considerably widened in scope in the future. As you can see, much has been done and much is being developed for the years to come. This is obviously a very brief overview, far from being exhaustive. Therefore, I would like to invite you to pay regular visits to our website and to inform your friend and those who might be interested about the Alpine Convention.
Enjoy!