As of: May 2011

Background information on the Alpine Convention

Protection and sustainable development of the Alps

During the first Alpine Conference held in Berchtesgaden in 1989, initiated by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, an urgent need for action to protect the Alps was recognized. The participating parties at the Alpine Conference therefore agreed to draw up a convention binding under international law for the protection of the Alps.

The Alpine Convention was signed in 1991 by the Alpine countries Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein and Switzerland as well as by the European Union on the occasion of the 2nd Alpine Conference in Salzburg, Austria. Monaco became a Contracting Party to the Convention on the basis of an additional Protocol. Slovenia signed the Convention on 29 March 1993. The Convention entered into force in 1995. Germany ratified the Convention on the Protection of the Alps (Alpine Convention) of 7 November 1991 by a law of 29 September 1994 (Federal Law Gazette 1994 II, p. 2538).

The Alpine Convention is a framework convention to guarantee the protection of the Alpine region and its sustainable development. The Contracting Parties commit themselves to jointly achieving this goal.

To realize the holistic policy for the conservation and protection of the Alps called for by the Alpine Convention, the Contracting Parties have approved the following Protocols: spatial planning and sustainable development, conservation of nature and the countryside, mountain farming, mountain forests, tourism, soil conservation, energy, transport and solution of litigations. The Protocols are independent implementation agreements under international law and have to be ratified individually.

Liechtenstein became the first Contracting Party to ratify all nine Protocols on 18 April 2002. Germany and Austria also ratified all Protocols in 2002, so that for these three Contracting Parties they entered into force in December 2002. In Monaco the Protocols Spatial planning and sustainable development, Tourism, Soil conservation and Solution of litigations entered into force in 2003, and the Protocol Conservation of nature and countryside in 2005. Slovenia ratified all Protocols in January 2004. France concluded the ratification of all Protocols in 2005. Italy and Switzerland have not yet ratified any of the Protocols.

In 2010 the Swiss Parliament came to the final decision of not ratifying the nine implementation Protocols of the Alpine Convention.

Up to now, the European Union has signed the Protocols Spatial planning, Mountain farming, Conservation of nature and countryside, Energy, Tourism, Soil conservation and Transport and ratified the Protocols Energy, Tourism, Soil conservation and Mountain farming in 2006. The Protocol Transport was signed in December 2006 (at that time by the EC).

Article 2 of the Alpine Convention provides for further measures in the sectors population and culture, prevention of air pollution, water management and waste management. One of the reasons why the Alpine Conference has not made a decision on drawing up further Protocols is that to date not all Contracting Parties to the Convention have ratified all existing Protocols. In 2006, the 9th Alpine Conference adopted a political declaration on Population and culture.

The 7th Alpine Conference decided on the location of the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention in 2002. Since 2003 the Permanent Secretariat has been based in Innsbruck, Austria, with a branch in Bozen, Italy. In 2006 the Alpine Network of Protected Areas was affiliated to the Permanent Secretariat as a Task Force (office in Chambéry, France).

The 11th Alpine Conference agreed on a Multiannual work programme for the years 2011 - 2016 ("Mehrjähriges Arbeitsprogramm der Alpenkonferenz 2011 bis 2016", MAP). The programme aims to ensure a long-term, continuous implementation of the Alpine Convention and its Protocols.

Up to 2016, the joint work will focus on five cross-sectoral fields of action: demographic change, climate change, tourism, biodiversity, transport and mobility.

The Reports on the State of the Alps are compiled on the most important developments in the Alpine region. The topics of the reports are determined by the Alpine Conference. The following Reports on the State of the Alps have been drawn up:

• Transport and mobility (2007)
• Water and water management issues (2009).
• Sustainable rural development and innovation (2011)

The fourth Report on the State of the Alps on Sustainable tourism is currently being drawn up. The Reports on the State of the Alps are published in the "Alpine Signals" series of the Alpine Convention.

Some current environmental topics - such as climate change - are not directly addressed by the Protocols of the Alpine Convention. The Ministers have taken due account of this topic, which is particularly relevant for the Alpine region, in a political declaration (Alpine Conference 2006) and in the Action Plan on Climate Change in the Alpine Space (Alpine Conference 2009).

The Chair of the Alpine Conference changes every two years. It is currently held by Switzerland (March 2011 to September 2012).

Further information is available on the website of the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention at www.alpenkonvention.org or at www.alparc.org.