Scope and purpose of the project

The European continent, and Western Europe as part of it, is one of the most intensively humanized areas of the Planet. In its southern part, high mountain ranges are a naturalness reserve with exceptional scenic and ecological and cultural values.

The purpose of this conservation initiative is to rebuild the large-scale ecological linkages between four of the main Western European mountain ranges: from the Cantabric Mountains to the Western Alps. This project emerged from the recommendations of the World Parks Congress of Durban (2003.)

Environmental and socio-political values

The Cantabric Mountains, the Pyrenees, the French Massif Central, and the Alps, with a total length of some 1,300 km and an area of 200,000 sq km, still conserve a combined natural and cultural heritage which is truly outstanding within the European Union context.

Mountain morphology is made up of glacier circus, rocky outcrops and cliffs, summits over 4000 m high, u-shaped valleys, and thousands of mountain lakes, some of them located near the Mediterranean Sea. Vegetation integrity is high and contains a large number of both endemic and extremely rare species. The landscape of the valleys, which is often the result of a historical interaction between natural vegetation and human intervention, has great aesthetic and cultural values.

Mountain wildlife is very significant at both global and regional scales: endemic species, such as Lepus castroviejoi, Apodemus alpicola, Rana pyrenaica, Euproctus asper or Salamandra atra; relicts from the last glaciar age, such as boreal owl (Aegolius funereus) or ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus); threatened species in Europe, such as lammergeier (Gypaetus barbatus), cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus) or European otter (Lutra lutra), and large mammals that have become regionally scarce, such as brown bear (Ursus arctos), lynx (Lynx lynx), wolf (Canis lupus), Alpine ibex (Capra ibex), or Chartreuse chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra cartusiana).

The cultural heritage is also very rich, including thousands of megalithic sites, medieval villages, castles, and churches, traditional festivals, and pastoral transhumant cultures. Nine different languages are still spoken by these mountain communities. The project area is divided into four countries (Spain, France, Italy and Andorra), and 18 regions, half of which have political autonomy. Political responsabilities related to land use and environmental policies are held by up to six different administrative levels, according to the degree of decentralization of each country.

Diagnose

Main impacts inside mountain ranges:

- Rural depopulation goes together with traditional agriculture landscape abandonment, expansion of forestlands, and cultural impoverishment.

- The most popular protected areas (such as National Parks) are overcrowded.

- Large ski resorts already are one of the main impacts, and many of them are undergoing a strong development.

- Urban sprawl associated to mountain recreation is creating environmental degradation and local population disturbances in certain valleys.

Main impacts between mountain ranges:

- Road and railway networks are fragmenting the landscape.

- Irrigation works, intensive agricultural uses, and forestry plantations are transforming the remaining semi-natural habitats.

- Urban and industrial development is spreading artificial areas, creating new barriers for wildlife.

Main threats:

Expansion of ski resorts, residential developments, tourist ressorts, highways and roads, and agriculture intensification. Potential climate change effects include severe impacts on some of the most fragile species and communities, especially those living in top alpine ecosystems.

Positive trends:

Protected areas have significantly increased, covering 24% of the project area. However, heterogeneity of legal protection categories (over 30), although weak integration to sectoral policies, and little international coordination are reducing the effectiveness of some conservation efforts. The Natura 2000 network, which is now being implemented by the European Union, may partially improve this situation, increasing protected area coverage to 38% of the project area. Transitional areas between these four mountain ranges have less protected areas, being more vulnerable to new threats.

On the other hand, wild ungulates have recovered during the past decades, preparing the coming back of large predators. Movements of large carnivores, specially wolf, suggest the natural scope of this initiative, requiring the development or restoration of natural linkages between these mountain ranges. While the brown bear is slowly recovering in the Cantabric Mountains and the Pyrenees, the wolf has recolonized the Western Alps in the 1990s, and some individuals have been recently sighted in the Massif Central and the Pyrenees, coming from the Alps. The lynx was reintroduced in the Alps and is currently increasing its range. In addition, there are reintroduction projects of other flagship species, like the lammergeier, the cinereous vulture, and the Spanish wild goat, that are improving their regional status.

Analysis of the existing protected areas coverage, their effectiveness, and the main fragmentation processes, will allow to define the main core areas that are still unprotected (gap analysis), as well as the critical corridors for the biological and landscape connectivity. Main efforts in conservation and restoration for the coming years should focus in both.

Current opportunities

The diagnostic suggests the existence of significant ecological, political, and social opportunities. Forestland expansion, cropland reduction, and rural depopulation inside mountain ranges have increased ecological permeability for large mammals and forest species. On the other hand, ungulate reintroduction, restocking, and existing populations growth provide the necessary preys for large carnivore recovery, which is already taking place. The spontaneous wolf and lynx expansion and the recovery of the Cantabric brown bear population are among the best indicators.

At the same time, international cooperation for biodiversity conservation has already a greater legal, social, and economic support in the European Union, where a number of concurrent initiatives are running today, such as the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy, the Habitats and Birds EU Directives, the LIFE funding programs, the Global Transboundary Protected Areas Network, the Réseau Alpin, and the Communité de Travail des Pyrénées.

Among the social opportunities are found new forms of institutional cooperation based on bioregions, emerging land stewardship strategies, strong social responses against potentially damaging projects, and debate forums like the European Mountain Forum. Moreover, there are two old nations (Basque Country and Catalonia) divided by country borders (Spain and France) which are willing to increase cooperation both sides of the Pyrenees.

Proposal

The goal of this Initiative is the establishment of a functional ecological network between the main mountain ranges of Western Europe, based on a combination of public policies and social networking. This initiative should continue towards Central and Eastern Europe, in order to ensure ecological connectivity between the Alps and the Apennines with the Balcanic Mountains and the Carpathians, on the basis of similar initiatives, which are already in place.

Aims

- Biodiversity conservation at a bioregional scale, beyond political and administrative boundaries

- Ecological connectivity among large mountain ecosystems

- Recovery of large carnivores and other flagship-species for the entire region

- Increased international cooperation, based on existing networks

- Social involvement, NGOs and local population participation

Priorities

1 Cooperation between the responsible agencies of countries, regions or local powers, and NGOs, especially in land use planning, ecological and landscape connectivity strategies, trans-boundary protected areas, conservation programs, etc.

2 International coordination for the management and recovery of threatened or endangered species.

3 Applied research development for the identification and monitoring of core areas and biological and landscape corridors.

4 Periodical performance assessments of the strategy effectiveness.

Current status and next steps

This initiative is in a preliminary stage. It was presented for the first time at the International Mountain Corridors Conference held in Banff, Canada, on September 2004. The second public presentation was done in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country) in December 2004. The first contacts with partners and leading agencies are beginning. Partners already involved include IUCN WCPA, EUROSITE, DG XI Environment of the European Union, INDUROT (Universidad de Oviedo), Centro de Estudios Ambientales de Vitoria-Gasteiz, Fundación Oso Pardo, Parco Nazionale Alpe Maritime.

We intend to submit a draft proposal to the next International Mountain Corridors Conference, which has been proposed to be held in the Centre for Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Pyrenees (Catalonia) at the end of October 2005.

(*) Fundació Territori i Paisatge is the leading nature conservation foundation that purchases and manages land for nature conservation in Spain. It was created in 1997 and funded by Caixa Catalunya Savings Bank. The Foundation currently owns and manages 18 sites (7,400 ha) and has over 60,000 ha in 28 management agreements. In addition, it has funded more than 280 conservation and education projects.