Welcome to Engelberg

After Disentis (CH 1994), Chamonix (F 1996), Garmisch-Partenkirchen (D 1998), Bergamo and Castione della Presolana (I 2000), Alpbach (A 2002) and Kranjska Gora (SI 2004), the seventh venue for the ForumAlpinum is again in Switzerland, in Engelberg, a tourist resort near the Titlis in the northern Alps. The ForumAlpinum has now accomplished its first “rotation” through all the alpine states since 1994 – and we hope that one day, the ForumAlpinum will be hosted by one of the alpine principalities!

On behalf of the International Scientific Committee for Alpine Research (ISCAR), the Swiss Academies of Sciences and of Humanities and Social Sciences, we take great pleasure in inviting you to Engelberg to reflect upon and discuss "Landscape Development in Mountain Regions", and ultimately to take joint action.

We have chosen a topic which has been explored by 35 research projects of the Swiss National Research Programme NRP 48 “Landscapes and Habitats of the Alps“, funded by the Swiss National Foundation. This ForumAlpinum will provide a platform to reflect the findings of this programme in a broader alpine and European context. This general topic is arching over sciences, economics and humanities, over science and societies, and also over the past and future, cultivation and the arts. The chief objective of ForumAlpinum 2007 is to arrive at a common understanding of the dynamics of mountain landscapes and to generate implementable ideas. In order to reach this objective in a more comprehensive way, we will also deal with films, excursions and natural alpine products.

Heinz Veit
President of the International Scientific Committee for Alpine Research (ISCAR)

Introduction

This 7th edition of the ForumAlpinum is focusing on mountain landscapes. The choice of this topic is related to the Swiss national research programme “Landscapes and habitats of the Alps” (NRP 48), which started in 2001 and will end in 2007 by presenting results from 35 projects and 5 thematic syntheses. The ForumAlpinum 2007 will integrate results from NRP 48 to debate landscape development in mountain regions.

Mountain landscapes are perceived as sensitive to change and as focal elements in sustaining mountain regions with attractive living spaces and valuable habitats. In terms of ecology, mountain landscapes represent high diversity and high natural integrity (wilderness), and they are part of  the services provided by ecosystems – mostly free of charge. From the angle of culture and society, mountain landscapes are both archives of past human activities (cultural landscapes) and objectives for the shaping of activities by today’s (local) populations (developing landscapes). On the economic side, landscapes are resources (tourism) and location factors – but do not appear on the balance sheets of enterprises.

How will and how should future mountain landscapes look? Do we have sufficient scope (options open) to govern and manage landscape development? ForumAlpinum intends to develop perspectives for future landscape-related research and for the governance of landscape change.