The international colloquium about the management of the large carnivores is approaching and together with it the publication of a new brochure about these emblematic animals of the two neighbouring massifs.

For the first time the thematic brochure of ALPARC extends its field of action also beyond the Alps. Due to the subject "Large carnivores in the protected areas" the tight cooperation with the Carpathian massif was practically indispensable.

On the initiative of ISCAR and ALPARC a new research journal on the protected mountain areas, published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, IGF and Innsbruck University, was issued in June 2009.

In order to improve the preservation of large carnivores in the Alps and the Carpathians, the international colloquium "Large carnivores: management, research and public relation strategies of the protected areas" was organised in the Nizke Tatry National Park in Slovakia from 2nd - 4th July 2009.

The first meetings of the pilot regions took place during 2009 with already encouraging results concerning the definition of data needs, the importance linked to legal aspects and the choice of species within the ecological network.

A meeting for discussing the suite of the cooperation between the Alpine and Carpathian protected areas was organized in Berlin, 4th December 2008. Our colleagues from the Carpathians (Mr. Mircea Verghelet, CNPA – Carpathian Network of Protected Areas – Steering Committee chair and Mr. Ján Kadlečík, responsible of the CWI – Carpathian Wetland Initiative) met the German State Secretary for Environment Mr. Michael Müller.

The new French presidency will carry on the activities of the Platform

More than 170 professionals, practitioners and students coming from 12 nations participated in the “4th Symposium of the Hohe Tauern National Park for Research in, for and about Protected Areas”, which took place at the Kaprun Castle, Salzburg / Austria from 17th – 19th September 2009.

This book counting 157 pages was recently published in the four Alpine languages and in English by the Permanent Secretary of the Alpine Convention.