Natural Hazards Working Group - PLANALP

Chair: Austria

The Natural Hazards Working Group of the Alpine Convention (PLANALP) was set up to develop common strategies designed to prevent natural hazards in the Alps as well as to exchange on adaptation strategies. The extent of the damage caused by such hazards is constantly increasing and the reasons are well known. Measures agreed across the whole Alpine region are therefore necessary and in some fields, they are urgently needed. 

After the devastating avalanches and floods of 1999, the Alpine Conference appointed a Working Group to develop common strategies and activity fields at the level of the parties to the Alpine Convention. Based on the recommendations of this Working Group, PLANALP was established by the Ministers at the VIII Alpine Conference in 2004. The mandate of PLANALP covers both the formulation of strategic concepts on integrated risk management against natural hazards and the coordinated implementation of subsequent measures.

The topic of natural hazards is addressed in the Protocol on Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development, but also mentioned in other protocols.  The current Multi- Annual Work Programme 2023-2030 deals with natural hazards as part of priority area 2: Taking ambitious climate action.   

In 2020 and 2021, the Working Group set out to define nature-based solutions for risk reduction and prevention of natural disasters, taking into account biodiversity, sustainable development, and climate change adaptation. In the current mandate period, they will focus on risk communication directed at people living in the endangered areas.

Contact:

Florian Rudolf-Miklau (Florian.RUDOLF-MIKLAU@bml.gv.at) and Katharina Rieder (katharina.rieder@bml.gv.at), Austrian Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Regions and Tourism