Governance and Laws of Mountains - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 173

7 7B
The Alpine Convention—a
Model?
Ricardo Rosario
In the words of Esty and Ivanova (2002), “The discrepancy between a
globalized world and a set of inescapable transboundary problems on the
one hand, and a dominant structure of national policymaking units on the
other, has led to a gap in issue coverage National legislatures often do not
see their role in addressing worldwide trans-boundary harms, while global
bodies often do not have the capacity or the authority to address them”.
Contiguous states may collaborate to sustain shared ecosystems and
solve common problems. Indeed, many trans-boundary issues appear fi rst
at the regional level, affecting several neighboring countries” (Lian and
Robinson 2002).
In this way The Convention on the Protection of the Alps, namely
'The Alpine Convention' is a treaty under international law to protect the
Alps at a regional scale. The Convention was signed on November 7, 1991
in Salzburg (Austria) by Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland,
Principality of Liechtenstein and the EU (Slovenia signed the convention
on March 29, 1993 and Principality of Monaco became a party on the basis
of a separate additional protocol). The Convention entered into force on
March 6, 1995.
The scope of the Alpine Convention covers the entire alpine region,
with some 190,000 square kilometers and 13.6 million people living in that
region and it is visited by millions of tourists. Therefore many common
challenges and questions of development have to be discussed through a
responsible international coordination of spatial planning, transport, energy,
tourism policy and other measures.
Brazilian Environmental Law Institute, Instituto de Estudos de Direito e Cidadania (IEDC).
Email: [e-mail]
# Corresponding author: fl [e-mail]