Protect Alpine Life by monitoring and managing Alpine biodiversity for the future: “Observing globally, acting locally”.

With these words in mind, on October 7th and 8th the partners of AlpsLife gathered at Eurac Research headquarters (Bozen-Bolzano, IT) for the kick-off meeting of this new Interreg Alpine Space project.

AlpsLife promotes a common understanding of biodiversity processes in the Alps, with the aim of enhancing conservation and management measures, mainly in protected areas. Alpine biodiversity is threatened by climate and land use change, while the variety of monitoring schemes at different levels and the lack of Alpine-wide ecological indicators compromise the effectiveness of protection and restoration efforts.

AlpsLife will therefore create a methodology for the comparability and interoperability of biodiversity monitoring schemes across the Alps. It will then test the results in practice and adjust them to the needs of Alpine protected areas. By doing so, AlpsLife ensures the long-term integration of project achievements into their management measures. This will also help Alpine policymakers comply with international environmental commitments.

The kick-off meeting gave project coordinators the opportunity to present in detail the roadmap of AlpsLife (from its official start in September 2024 until its conclusion in August 2027). It also allowed all 12 partners to share their expectations for the project. Moreover, ALPARC engaged in a fruitful exchange with the representatives of the Alpine national parks, discussing the next steps for identifying common biodiversity indicators and for translating harmonized monitoring into effective management strategies.

For more information about the project: https://alparc.org/alpslife

This project is co-funded by the European Union through the Interreg Alpine Space programme, which supports cross-border cooperation projects between seven Alpine countries. ALPARC is co-founded in this project by the German Ministry for the Environment (BMUV).

© photo: Andrea De Giovanni / Eurac Research