Founded | 1997 |
---|---|
Type | Non-governmental organization |
Focus | sustainable development |
Location | |
Area served | Alps |
Method | Information, exchange of experience |
Members | 316 municipalities |
Key people | Rainer Siegele (President), Marc Nitschke (Vice president), Freddy Kaiser, Jure Žerjav, Pierre Balme, Antonio Chiadò, Franz Gnos (members of the committee) |
Website | www.alpenallianz.org |
The network of communities Alliance in the Alps is an association of currently more than 300 local authorities and regions from seven Alpine states and was founded in 1997. On the basis of the targets set by the Alpine Convention, [1] its members, together with their citizens, work to develop their alpine living environment in a sustainable way. "Exchange – Address – Implement" is the guiding principle behind the Alliance's activities.
The network of communities offers a sharing of experience and information beyond the boundaries of language and culture. All the publications and events are in four languages: German, French, Italian and Slovene.
Alliance in the Alps promotes the exchange of knowledge and experience, threw setting up events and excursions at local, regional or international level. It also plans to formulate policy positions for a sustainable and environmentally approach to climate change by municipalities. The annual report is published in the four main languages of the alpine space, and a newsletter "Flashinfo" is sent by email quarterly.
The network is currently counting 316 municipalities members [2] in seven countries: Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Switzerland . A membership requires the assent to the principles and goals of the Alpine Convention. Afterwards, the members also have to implement sustainable goals, to develop measure programs protecting the environment, and to constantly improve the environmental protection.
Climate changes are currently the focus of many actors. Unfortunately the measures adopted in some cases disagree with the principle of sustainable development and are opposite to nature conservation. That's why the network of municipalities believes it is so important to support its members in embracing a sustainable approach to the problem of climate change.
Focussing on climate changes, the new dynAlp-climate program is running from 2009 to 2012. It has a budget of around 800,000 euros, due to the financial support from the MAVA Foundation for Nature. The financial assistance is intended for projects in municipalities or regions which are providing a contribution to climate protection and adaptation to climate change impacts.
In parallel with the municipal projects, group events such as workshops, excursions and international meetings are a key activity of dynAlp-climate as well. These help to increase networking between the alpine municipalities and thus help to make local knowledge accessible to a large public.
With the DYNALP² project (2006–2009), "Alliance in the Alps" carried on the work on sustainable development and implementation of the Alpine Convention. DYNALP² implements the findings from CIPRA’s Future in the Alps Project" [4] at the community level and promotes exchanges between the municipalities. DYNALP² projects focus on one or more of the following topic areas: regional added value, governance capacity, protected areas, mobility, new forms of decision making, and policies and instruments.
Launched in 2003, DYNALP was an INTERREG IIIB "Alpine space" project supported by the EU. With a total budget of 2.16 million euros for a period of three years, it helped to fund the development, coordination and implementation of 52 community or regional projects for the following four protocols of the Alpine Convention: Tourism, Conservation of Nature and the Countryside, Mountain Farming and Regional Planning and Sustainable Development. In addition to projects in communes, sharing experiences across borders language and culture was the most important goal of DYNALP.
The "Alliance of Central Asian Mountain Communities" [5] was founded in June 2003 in the Tadjik capital Dushanbe on the model of the "Alliance in the Alps" network. Like its sister organisation in the Alps, this Central Asian community network is active in the area of sustainable development in mountain communities and knowledge-sharing at the community level. With an agenda of mutual visits, excursions and information-exchange, the organisation became as well a platform for good practice and interesting projects.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. It is involved in data gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, and education. IUCN's mission is to "influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable".
The Bregenzerwald is one of the main regions in the state of Vorarlberg (Austria). It overlaps, but is not coterminous with, the Bregenz Forest Mountains, which belong to a range of the Northern Limestone Alps, specifically the northern flysch zone. It is the drainage basin of the Bregenzer Ach river.
The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC/UNESCO) was established by resolution 2.31 adopted by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It first met in Paris at UNESCO Headquarters from 19 to 27 October 1961. Initially, 40 States became members of the commission. The IOC assists governments to address their individual and collective ocean and coastal management needs, through the sharing of knowledge, information and technology as well as through the co-ordination of programs and building capacity in ocean and coastal research, observations and services.
ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability is an international non-governmental organization that promotes sustainable development. ICLEI provides technical consulting to local governments to identify and meet sustainability objectives. It has a strong focus on biodiversity and has worked across local, national, and global levels. ICLEI was the first and is the largest transnational network of local governments engaging in climate action.
Interreg is a series of programmes to stimulate cooperation between regions in and out of the European Union (EU), funded by the European Regional Development Fund. The first Interreg started in 1989. Interreg IV covered the period 2007–2013. Interreg V (2014–2020) covers all 27 EU member states, the EFTA countries, six accession countries and 18 neighbouring countries. It has a budget of EUR 10.1 billion, which represents 2.8% of the total of the European Cohesion Policy budget. Since the non EU countries don't pay EU membership fee, they contribute directly to Interreg, not through ERDF.
Climate Action Network - International (CAN) is a global network of over 1,300 environmental non-governmental organisations in over 130 countries working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels.
Environmental governance (EG) consists of a system of laws, norms, rules, policies and practices that dictate how the board members of an environment related regulatory body should manage and oversee the affairs of any environment related regulatory body which is responsible for ensuring sustainability (sustainable development) and manage all human activities—political, social and economic. Environmental governance includes government, business and civil society, and emphasizes whole system management. To capture this diverse range of elements, environmental governance often employs alternative systems of governance, for example watershed-based management.
The Alpine Space Programme is a transnational cooperation programme in the framework of the European Union cohesion policy. In this programme national, regional and local stakeholders from the participating countries in the Alpine space cooperate on various transnational projects.
Climate governance is the diplomacy, mechanisms and response measures "aimed at steering social systems towards preventing, mitigating or adapting to the risks posed by climate change". A definitive interpretation is complicated by the wide range of political and social science traditions that are engaged in conceiving and analysing climate governance at different levels and across different arenas. In academia, climate governance has become the concern of geographers, anthropologists, economists and business studies scholars.
Pizzo Coca is a mountain that straddles the Val Seriana and the Valtellina in Lombardy, Italy. It is the highest peak in the Bergamo Alps. Its height is 3,050 metres with a prominence height of 1,878 metres and a saddle of 1,172 metres. A post-glacial valley exists near a point called Ometto in sassi at 2,400 meters.
A sustainability organization is (1) an organized group of people that aims to advance sustainability and/or (2) those actions of organizing something sustainably. Unlike many business organizations, sustainability organizations are not limited to implementing sustainability strategies which provide them with economic and cultural benefits attained through environmental responsibility. For sustainability organizations, sustainability can also be an end in itself without further justifications.
The Alpine Convention is an international territorial treaty for the sustainable development of the Alps. The objective of the treaty is to protect the natural environment of the Alps while promoting its development. This Framework Convention involves the European Union and eight states. Opened to signature in 1991 and consisting of a Framework Convention, various implementation protocols and declarations, it entered into force in 1995, contributing to reinforce the recognition of special qualities and specific characteristics of the Alps, going beyond national boundaries and seeking international action.
Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) is a regional program that works with governments and organizations to share knowledge about adapting to climate change and to support implementation of adaptation measures. APAN was set up in October 2009 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as part of the Global Adaptation Network (GAN). APAN is considered a key mobilizer of adaptation knowledge in Asia and the Pacific.
The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) is an independent think tank founded in 1990 working to shape and inform international policy on sustainable development governance. The institute has three offices in Canada - Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Toronto, and one office in Geneva, Switzerland. It has over 150 staff and associates working in over 30 countries.
The Alpine Town of the Year award is given to towns which have made exceptional efforts for the realization of the Alpine Convention and for sustainable development. The Alpine Towns of the Year are members of the international association of the same name.
The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) works to enhance the quality of life for the poorest and most vulnerable to climate change. CDKN does this by combining research, advisory services and knowledge management in support of locally owned and managed policy processes. It works in partnership with decision-makers in the public, private and non-governmental sectors nationally, regionally and globally.
The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) is a policy leadership alliance owned and led by member central banks and financial regulatory in developing countries with the objective of advancing financial inclusion.
The Sustainable Mekong Research Network (SUMERNET) is a network of organizations committed to the sustainable development of the Greater Mekong Region. Launched in 2005, SUMERNET supports policy-relevant research and outreach activities to inform and engage policy-makers, planners and stakeholders. Within this context, it pursues an evolving agenda in response to questions and policy issues that arise in the region. Current research themes are climate-compatible development, regional economic integration, and ecosystem services and local development. The network works on a range of issues including natural ecosystems governance, floods and natural disasters, climate change and adaptation, and transboundary resource flows.
Climate change education (CCE) is education that aims to address and develop effective responses to climate change. It helps learners understand the causes and consequences of climate change, prepares them to live with the impacts of climate change and empowers learners to take appropriate actions to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. Climate change and climate change education are global challenges that can be anchored in the curriculum in order to provide local learning and widen up mindset shifts on how climate change can be mitigated. In such as case CCE is more than climate change literacy but understanding ways of dealing with climate