An Alpine Convention policy brief on biodiversity in the Alps published

Jun 19, 2025

In April 2025, the policy brief entitled Biodiversity in the Alps was published by the Alpine Convention, and can be accessed here. Its main aim refers to providing strategic guidance for translating the global biodiversity goals to the Alpine level. Recommendations for action are presented for four thematic clusters, including conservation, connectivity, restoration and monitoring. The approach to implementing the recommendations is indicated as well.

For connectivity, the document highlights the importance of ecological corridors for the movement of species and ecosystem resilience, as well as identifies fragmentation of natural habitats by settlement and infrastructure development as one of the key pressures on biodiversity. The two recommendations point out the necessity to agree on strategic priority corridors that need to be preserved or restored in the Alps and with areas beyond, and to include common connectivity objectives in strategic and planning documents leading to implementation. One of the graphic representations in the chapter on connectivity features a map of linkages with high importance for ecological network coherency in the Alpine region which was elaborated in the PlanToConnect project.

Previously, some results from the PlanToConnect project were presented and discussed in a workshop on ecological connectivity at the Alpine Biodiversity Conference. The conference was an event under the Slovenian presidency of the Alpine Convention held in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, in June 2024, that enabled discussion between different types of stakeholders and aimed at producing input for recommendations.

The main target group of the policy brief Biodiversity in the Alps are policymakers on different levels and other stakeholders in the field of biodiversity. According to the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention, the document was distributed to all Alpine Convention delegations, including the observer organisations.