Mountaineers' village Lesachtal
Photo Unterguggenberger

Extracts from the annual report
of the ÖAV Nature Protection Department

Selected and translated by Tony Cooper

Each section and each provincial group has a nature protection officer. The report was primarily addressed to them. Tony is the AAC(UK) Nature Protection Representative, engaging with the AV department and attending field meetings in Austria, usually at least annually.

Once again this year we would like to say thank you for your engagement and your commitment to nature. Every year your activities impress us and show us what committed nature conservation can look like! Despite the ups and downs caused by the pandemic, we can look back on an eventful year. With the active support of some of our volunteer officials, the Department of Spatial Planning and Nature Conservation has drawn up a position paper on the assessment of locations for wind turbines in the Alps. In addition, we have worked intensively on the topic of "large carnivores". And last, but not least, we have continued to engage with some large-scale judicial proceedings about ski area expansion and wind turbine construction. We want to give you a brief overview of this in the following. We also hope to meet you again in large numbers at events in person next year.

Update on Major Legal Proceedings

A large part of our resources is tied up in our endeavours to interrupt growth spirals, mostly concerning ski resorts and wind turbines. We are still engaged in the campaign against the expansion of the Schmittenhöhe ski area in Zell am See to Piesendorf. We are also concerned with the planned linking of the Sexten and Sillian ski areas. In both these cases, in addition to over-development of the area it is above all grouse and their habitats that are threatened, and we are continuing to campaign strongly. However, the largest threatened area remains that between the glacier ski areas in the Ötztal and Pitztal. We're still on the case.

Meanwhile, favourable locations for wind power are often found where mountaineers can find physical and mental relaxation. It is those areas in the Alps that until now have been most undisturbed. That is why they offer valuable habitats to animal species that are in trouble elsewhere. While on the Handalm we are fighting for a bird radar, on the Freiländer Alm our fight is to ensure that the area around the Großofen is not built on. After all the climate crisis does not release us from taking a closer look at wind turbines as our constitution mandates.

The Family of Mountaineers' Villages (Bergsteigerdörfer) has grown

Since October 17th the family of mountaineers' villages reaches as far as the Mediterranean, the newest member is Triora in Liguria. And already on October 9th, the small mountain village of Balme in the Piedmont became a mountaineers' village. The tally of Austrian mountaineering villages has also grown by two with Steinberg am Rofan in Tirol and Göriach in Lungau, Also the SAC (Swiss Alpine Club) became a partner of the project in 2021 - and with it the Swiss mountaineers' villages St. Antönien and Lavin, Guarda & Ardez. Brochures for the new villages can be ordered from info@bergsteigerdoerfer.org and can be viewed online at https://www.bergsteigerdoerfer.org/1409-0-Einzelbroschueren.html .

Alpenverein photo pool: Nature-Conservation-related pictures wanted

In the Alpine Club Photo Pool, images are collected that can be used by the sections free of charge. We are still looking for motifs for the category nature protection. Do you have some beautiful pictures (minimum pixel size 1500 x 1500)? We would be very happy if you made them available at https://www.alpenverein.at/portal/fotopool/.

Measuring a melting world

In the coming year, Bergauf will again be addressing the topic of glaciers and the most important data for the Alpine region will be gathered into a glacier report. As a foretaste, we recommend an article by Dominik Schrey on https://science.orf.at/ about the measurement of a melting world (Die Vermessung einer schmelzenden Welt) that shows us the painful reality of climate change.

Editor’s note: The idea of the Mountaineering Villages (MV) initiative is to provide support for the villages' traditions, to protect their alpine beauty and natural resources, to encourage sustainable tourism, and support the local economy so that all this continues to be possible. The ÖAV works with the villagers and with the local governments to make this happen. More information can be found in the article by Tony Cooper in newsletter issue 217, Spring 2018, (available on the Club website) and at https://eng.bergsteigerdoerfer.org

Windpark Handalm
Photo Abteilung Raumplanung und Naturschutz

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