Successful 6th Day of the Alpine Convention

Successful 6th Day of the Alpine Convention with a rich programme

The main purpose of the events of the Day of the Alpine Convention, which took place from 29 to 31 May 2015, was to draw attention to the sensitivity of the Alps and the challenges in the alpine area, to present the importance of the Alpine Convention and the peculiarities of alpine valleys, the importance of preserving nature and cultural heritage, and to encourage visitors to visit alpine valleys in an environmentally friendly way.

The Day of the Alpine Convention under the slogan Through alpine valleys by bike and on foot – from Mojstrana to Krma, Vrata and Radovna!, organised by the Mountaineering Association Dovje-Mojstrana, Municipality of Kranjska Gora, LTO Kranjska Gora, Triglav National Park, Alpine Association of Slovenia, Slovenian Mountaineering Museum and Upper Sava Valley Museum Jesenice in cooperation with the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning and the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention, took place for the sixth time and is an example of exemplary cooperation between various stakeholders in the Alpine area and the local environment.

The conference on the challenges of mountain and border areas with the presentation of the 5th Report on the State of the Alps on the topic of demographic changes and the presentation of possibilities for implementing the pilot project Mountain Villages in Slovenia took place on Friday, 29 May 2015, in the Slovenian Mountaineering Museum in Mojstrana. The Director General of the Directorate for Spatial Planning, Construction and Housing, Barbara Radovan, emphasised that through the slogan Through alpine valleys by bike and on foot we are strengthening partnerships and the recognition of the convention at the local and regional level, and that the presentation of the Report on the State of the Alps also opened a professional discussion on the role of mountain and border areas within the framework of the renewal of the Spatial Development Strategy of Slovenia. The main highlights of the 5th Report on the State of the Alps on the topic of demographic change were presented by Deputy Secretary General of the Alpine Convention Simona Vrevc, who pointed out that common trends are visible, but we cannot speak of regularities, as the Alps are also becoming an attractive area for immigration. A more detailed picture for Slovenia was presented by Tomaž Miklavčič, MSc. Slovenia is included in the Alpine Convention with 62 municipalities, which represent one third of Slovenian territory. In the last part of the conference, the possibilities of inclusion in the Mountain Villages project, led by the Austrian Alpine Association, were presented, and in Slovenia the Alpine Association of Slovenia (PZS) has joined it. Vice-President of PZS and Head of the Slovenian Mountaineering Museum in Mojstrana Miro Eržen presented the inclusion criteria, the formal procedure for new candidates, and above all the past activities of PZS in assessing the possibilities for implementing the project in Slovenia. The discussants agreed that the state should assign a specific role to the development of mountain and border areas, recognise their strategic importance and support them appropriately. A more detailed report from the conference and presentations are available on the website at this link. The 5th Report on the State of the Alps will presumably be printed in all alpine languages in July and available online.

The main event of the Day of the Alpine Convention took place on Saturday, 30 May 2015, when the organisers prepared recreational cycling to Krma, a hike to the Pocar Farmstead in the Radovna Valley and a hike along the Triglavska Bistrica path in the Vrata Valley with a rich accompanying programme at the Slovenian Mountaineering Museum. Participants could visit the Slovenian Mountaineering Museum in Mojstrana and the Pocar Farmstead in Zgornja Radovna, a museum-arranged farmstead and information point of the Triglav National Park free of charge. In front of the Slovenian Mountaineering Museum, participants could try climbing in variously difficult routes on the climbing tower, watch a demonstration of mountain rescue on the Grančišče wall organised by the GRS Mojstrana Association, and workshops for the youngest visitors on the theme of the fairy tale Ledenec, the Aljaž Tower and life in the alpine

valleys took place. The cultural programme featured the Jesenice-Kranjska Gora Brass Band, the Triglavski zvonovi choir and singers from the Osminka Music Studio. At the stands, Tourism Bohinj, LTO Kranjska Gora, TD Dovje-Mojstrana, TIC Jezersko, Nature Park Julijsko predgorje from Italy, Biosphere Reserve Nockberge from Austria, WWF Adria, Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention, CIPRA and Triglav National Park presented their programmes and offers.

In the official part of the event, the participants were greeted by Deputy Mayor of the Municipality of Kranjska Gora Bogdan Janša, Acting Director of Triglav National Park Dr Bogomil Breznik, Vice-President of the Alpine Association of Slovenia and Head of the Slovenian Mountaineering Museum Miro Eržen, State Secretary at the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning Tanja Bogataj, MSc, and Deputy Secretary General of the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention Simona Vrevc. They agreed that the event is an example of good cooperation for a common goal – the protection of the sensitive alpine area and nature in general, and that the event is an exemplary example of how to bring the Alpine Convention closer to the local level.

On the Day of the Alpine Convention, the booklet Timetables in the Alps 2015 was also published, prepared by Cipra Slovenia, the association for the protection of the Alps, together with 21 partners. The handy booklet in Slovenian and English is suitable for both visitors and locals. It contains an overview of timetables for all bus and train lines, cable cars and the boat in the area of the Slovenian Alps and part of Austria. A novelty in this year's edition is the bicycle rental table, with which they want to emphasise the importance of cycling in transport.

The award ceremony for the literary competition on the theme of the Aljaž Tower also took place at the event, as this year marks 120 years since the construction of the Aljaž Tower on the summit of Triglav. Primary school pupils reflected on the importance of the Aljaž Tower with the help of graffiti, short films and short stories.

The excursion to Dovška Baba organised by the Mountaineering Association Dovje-Mojstrana on Sunday, 31 May 2015, was cancelled due to bad weather.

The Alpine Convention is the world's first international treaty concerning a mountain area. It was signed by the countries of the Alpine arc: Austria, France, Italy, Principality of Monaco, Liechtenstein, Germany, Slovenia and Switzerland, and the European Community. It means joint responsibility and a joint strategy for coexistence between nature conservation and the management of its resources. The Alps cover an area of 190,959 km², which is 1,200 km long and up to 300 km wide. The Alpine arc rises from the sea to the summit of Mont Blanc at 4,807 metres. The Alpine mountain range extends across eight countries, with Austria accounting for 28.7% of the total Alpine area, Italy 27.2%, France 21.4%, Switzerland 13.2%, Germany 5.8%, Slovenia 3.6%, Liechtenstein 0.08% and Monaco 0.001%. The aim of the initiators of the convention is to protect the Alps as a living and economic space, cultural, linguistic and landscape diversity. The Alps, with their biodiversity, water and forest resources, natural, cultural and economic environment, are home to almost 14 million people and an attractive tourist destination for about 120 million visitors annually. The Alpine Convention strives for sustainable tourism and sustainable development of the Alps with all their characteristics. It also strives to reduce traffic loads, therefore promoting more nature-friendly visits to the Alps using public transport and special traffic arrangements in alpine valleys. The Alpine Convention and its protocols represent instruments for the sustainable development of the alpine area and propose a uniform development concept that would prevent competitive struggles from taking place at the expense of nature and to the detriment of people. With joint efforts, methods must be found that will manage the limited resources in the mountain area in the most economical way and without consequences for future generations. The implementation of the convention's efforts in practice is certainly also the Day of the Alpine Convention.







Conference on the challenges of mountain and border areas

Within the framework of the Day of the Alpine Convention 2015, a conference on the challenges of mountain and border areas with an emphasis on the state and trends of demographic changes also took place on Friday, 29 May 2015 in Mojstrana.

At the beginning, the participants were greeted by the Mayor of Kranjska Gora, Janez Hrovat, Director General of the Directorate for Spatial Planning, Construction and Housing, Barbara Radovan, and Vice-President of the Alpine Association of Slovenia, Miro Eržen. Barbara Radovan emphasised that through the slogan "Through alpine valleys by bike and on foot", we are strengthening partnerships and the recognition of the convention at the local and regional level. This year, however, in connection with the Report on the State of the Alps, we have also opened a professional discussion that actualises the issue of the role of mountain and border areas within the framework of the renewal of the Spatial Development Strategy of Slovenia. Population is one of the key drivers of the development of the state and society, so attention must be paid to spatial trends and their causes. The same applies to the Alps – without people, there would be no characteristic alpine heritage. The Alpine Convention has specifically highlighted the role of the population in the Declaration on Population and Culture. Although the convention arose from efforts to protect the Alps, its eight protocols cover all key areas for the Alps and encourage national policies to establish conditions for a higher quality of life for the population in the Alps. As emphasised in her introduction by Deputy Secretary General of the Alpine Convention, Simona Vrevc, the convention is still very relevant even after more than twenty years, as it promotes a territorial, holistic approach. She presented the main highlights of the 5th Report on the State of the Alps on the topic of demographic change. The population in the Alps is ageing, and is particularly emigrating from remote areas, while it is concentrating in valleys and in the hinterland of larger centres on the edge of the Alps. However, the alpine picture is far from uniform. Common trends are visible, but it would be difficult to speak of regularity. It has been shown that the Alps are no longer an area of emigration, but an area that is attractive for immigration. A more detailed picture for Slovenia was presented by Tomaž Miklavčič, MSc. Slovenia is included in the Alpine Convention with one third of its territory (62 municipalities), which by no means covers all its mountainous areas; these account for 80%. The population in municipalities that are fully included in the convention (45 municipalities) is just over 380,000, and if we add the population of municipalities that are partially included, it amounts to over 663,000. This reflects the characteristic distribution of the population in the hinterland of larger centres (Nova Gorica, Kranj, Maribor). The report will be printed in all alpine languages and will also be available on the website. It will also be prepared in the form of an e-book, and some of the data will be included in a web GIS application that allows users to obtain published data. The situation in Slovenian mountain and border areas was highlighted by Tomaž Miklavčič, MSc with a presentation of the key points of the Spatial Development Report, Janez Topolšek, MSc with a presentation of the instrument of border problem areas, Andrej Gulič, MSc with an analysis of the vulnerability of the Gorenjska region to climate change prepared within C3Alpks, and possible combined effects with demographic changes in space, and Barbara Černič Mali, MSc presented the results of the DEMOCHANGE project using the example of three Upper Gorenjska municipalities. In the discussion that followed, Primož Vodovnik from RRA Koroška pointed out that at the same time as the process of relocating services in the region to urban settlements, which increases accessibility time, the process of reducing public services provided by the state in the region is also taking place. Aleksandra Torbica, MSc from the Municipality of Nova Gorica, which is included in EZTS GO, presented the role of the urban area in the cross-border space. She emphasised the unequal demographic hinterland of Nova Gorica and Gorica and suggested that the cross-border space should also be included in the analyses and that the Slovenian cultural space should be taken into account. Silvester Kranjec from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food explained that 85% of areas in Slovenia have limiting factors for farming, of which 72% are mountainous.

Farming is also essential for the quality of the landscape. The demographic picture in these areas is not good, but it is improving, partly due to rural development policy measures. The discussion also highlighted some good examples, for example in Zgornje Posočje, where the state invested certain funds in a development programme after the earthquake, which enabled the creation of jobs, but which are now decreasing with the reduction of service networks. As the key problem for the Posočje economy, Almira Pirih, MSc, Acting Director of the Posočje Development Centre, highlighted accessibility. Urška Kušar from ARSO highlighted the issue of the possibility of teleworking, which, however, according to Tomaž Miklavčič, is not a solution for everyone, as only part of the employed can work in this way.

The discussants agreed that the state should assign a specific role to the development of mountain and border areas, recognise their strategic importance, e.g. recognise some border areas as entry points, and support them appropriately. Mountain areas can be a specific sustainable development model that does not rely on large and expensive infrastructure, but on sustainable tourism based on cultural landscape and nature.

In the last part of the conference, the possibilities of inclusion in the Mountain Villages project, led by the Austrian Alpine Association, were presented, and in Slovenia the Alpine Association of Slovenia has joined it. Miro Eržen from PZS presented the inclusion criteria, the formal inclusion procedure for new candidates, and above all the past activities of the Alpine Association of Slovenia in assessing the possibilities for implementing the project in Slovenia. Additional explanations on the project were also given by Roland Kals, who is responsible for coordinating the project at the Austrian Alpine Association. His experience as a Mountain Village was presented by the Mayor of the Municipality of Sela from Austrian Carinthia, who emphasised the importance of joining this project as a process of directed shaping and development of tourism in mountain areas. Peter Angermann from Mallnitz emphasised similarly. The role of the project was positively assessed by Joachim Gfreiner, President of the Austrian Alpine Association for Carinthia.