We are happy to announce that 3 project proposals put forward this year at the second call for projects in the EU Interreg –Alpine Space Programme have been selected. They are the YOUrALPS and ALPBIONET2030 projects, led by ALPARC, and the GaYA project, in which ALPARC is a partner and responsible for a Workpackage.

YOUrALPS - Educating Youth for the Alps: (re)connecting Youth and Mountain heritage for an inspiring future in the Alps (2016-2019)
ALPARC and their 12 partners are taking up the challenge involved in reinforcing mountain education and making young people more aware of the natural heritage and culture of the Alps in a durable way. Starting by structuring a network of education players in the Alps, the aim is to bring closer together the sectors of formal education (schools) and non-formal education (education players in the mountains, such as, for example, the protected areas), by promoting the inclusion of mountain environment education in educational programmes via the concept of an “Alpine School” which will be tested in many pilot sites. The project plans for active participation from both political decision makers and young inhabitants of the Alps.

GaYA - Governance and Youth in the Alps (2016-2018)
The project leader Agenzia di Sviluppo GAL Genovese/Italy and its  7 partners , among which  ALPARC  and the  Massif des Bauges Nature Park, will unite their forces and skills during a period of 2 years in order to develop the governance of young people in the Alpine space .They will be supported by different pilot sites, both urban and rural , with the participation of groups of young people , in order to contribute to reinforcing the capacities of political decision-makers to involve the young, as citizens,  in the decision making process.

These two projects confirm the importance and the potential of our thematic Pole devoted to mountain environment Education and young people. Even if it is technically not possible to involve all our members in such projects, either as partners or observers, we will take care to inform them and see that they benefit from the actions and results of these projects. This will be especially true for those taking part in our “Mountain Environment Education” workshop.

ALPBIONET2030 - Integrative Alpine Wildlife and Habitat Management for the Next Generation, (2016-2019) 
ALPARC and their 14 partners are working together on ecological connectivity in the Alps and with the new Alpine Macro-region. The aim of this project is to improve on the already substantial work carried out on this theme in the past few years, notably by proposing a mapping of the areas strategic to connectivity in and around the Alpine arc, by developing a strategy for managing wildlife in tandem with various players and by working on mediation tools to respond to conflicts which may arise at the implementation of ecological networks.

We are happy to be starting work right away with all the partners and observers of each project.  To find out more pending the setting up of Internet sites devoted to each project, you can see the presentation of the successful projects on the  Alpine Space programme page.