ALPARC carried out its first ordinary general assembly on 10th January 2014 in Pinzolo in the Adamello Brenta Natural Park (I) with its members from all Alpine countries present. The general assembly approved the official reports for 2013 of the President, Treasurer and Director, as well as the framework programme 2014-2019 and the working programme 2014.

The programme reflects ALPARC’s most important areas of action:

The presence of the General Secretary of the Alpine Convention, Markus Reiterer, has emphasised the close connection between ALPARC and the Alpine Convention, even after separation of the Task Force Protected Areas from the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention. ALPARC’s programme includes an intensive cooperation on various subjects to run from this year.

ALPARC, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year (founded by France in 1995), is an own entity from now onwards and has a team to further strengthen the cooperation between the administrators of the protected areas of all Alpine countries within the framework of the Alpine Convention. In addition to France and Germany that have supported ALPARC for a long time, this status should enable other Alpine countries too to become involved more pro-actively in the concrete implementation of the Convention.

On time for the general assembly, ALPARC could welcome its 40th member: the Binntal Nature Park in Switzerland, and coinciding with going to press for this newsletter the Slovenian Logar Valley Landscape Park registered as a new official ALPARC member. A warm welcome!

You can view the activity report 2013 as a pdf file at this link .