In the past week we have been pleased to hold two new workshops for our members. These online meetings addressed the Working Groups within the network, in regards to two of our tfields of work: “Regional Development and quality of life” and “Education for sustainable development in the Alps”.

On June 18th, the first workshop was focusing on visitor management, challenges and opportunities for Alpine protected areas in view of future common activities at the Alpine level. Thus, the objective was to identify existing best practices for visitor management in different parks and common difficulties against the background of the increased post-Covid pressure on sensitive ecosystems. In this context, we also had the opportunity to discuss a concrete project proposal targeting joint actions at the international level.

On June 24th, the second workshop was aiming to foster exchange on the different education activities for this year’s summer and autumn season, and have a look at any new projects or initiatives which you would like to share with the other educators. It has been very inspiring to see how everyone is being highly creative to deal with the pandemic situation and to keep offering a large variety of Education Activities. The workshop also gave us the occasion to share updates on the upcoming 7th edition of Youth at the Top.

We would like to sincerely thank all the participants to these workshops. The valuable inputs from Protected Areas all across the Alps and the rich discussions that ensued, were living proof of the importance of international cooperation as we cherish it.