The report “The Alps. From Rio 1992 to 2012 and beyond: 20 years of Sustainable Mountain Development. What have we learnt and where should we go?” commissioned by the Swiss Presidency of the Alpine Convention offers an overview about the main institutions that are actors in the Alps as well as a description and analysis of a selection of activities that they have initiated and implemented.

The network ALPARC is of course among these alpine institutions and, standing in a row with Alliance in the Alps, the Alpine Town of the Year and CIPRA, they “have been praised by many for enhancing the visibility not just of the Alpine Convention itself but also of a general Alpine ‘spirit’, a perception of common goals and challenges throughout the range. These networks are generally deemed to be working well, even where the Alpine Convention is faced with challenges due to political blockades […]. They represent a ‘bottom-up’ mobilization of inhabitants, local representatives, researchers, managers of protected areas, and ecological associations, as compared to the “top-down” identification of the Alpine massif via the Alpine Convention and Alpine Space Programme [ …]” (Price et al, 2011, p. 37).