The Parks of the Cottian Alps join the Transboundary Committee for Biodiversity.

The Council of the Management Body of the Protected Areas of the Cottian Alps, in the meeting of January 31, 2024, unanimously approved the establishment of a Transboundary Committee for Biodiversity (CTB) within the framework of the ALCOTRA France-Italy cross-border cooperation, to continue the partnership of the PITEM Biodiv'ALP. this initiative was started by 5 French and Italian regions (Sud-Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Piedmont, Liguria, and Valle d'Aosta) aimed at protecting and enhancing biodiversity and alpine ecosystems through an Interreg ALCOTRA funding that took place in the four-year period 2019-2023. The Biodiversity Charter represents, at the same time, one of the milestones of the just concluded project and the starting point for the new programs that have just been launched.

"I personally presented the document to the council," explains Alberto Valfrè, president of the Cottian Alps Protected Areas, "because it perfectly adheres to the mission of our Body. In the preamble of the charter, it is stated that 'the Western Alps are a biodiversity hotspot' just like the territories protected by our Parks ranging from the Lakes of Avigliana to the alpine peaks of Orsiera Rocciavrè, Gran Bosco di Salbertrand, and Val Troncea, not to mention 2 nature reserves and 16 sites of the Natura 2000 Network including diverse environments such as forests and meadows, wetlands and xerothermic oases, lowland and high-altitude mountain ecosystems. The objective of the document, in addition to the protection and enhancement of the ecological heritage, is also based on the importance of operational cooperation between bodies that has already materialized in the Aclimo and BiodivTourAlps projects, in which various regional and national parks of the 5 regions will collaborate until 2027, thanks to the substantial contributions of the Interreg ALCOTRA planning."

In detail, the Charter establishes the Transboundary Committee for Biodiversity, which is responsible for protecting the ecosystemic value of alpine territories, enhancing their capacity to represent a tool for local development, and ensuring an exchange of scientific and managerial information to initiate common projects. The representatives of the 5 regions make up the steering group, while the adherence of other bodies is voluntary. The Parks of the Cottian Alps have signed the document indicating Luca Marello, the director, as the contact person, with the assistance of Bruno Aimone, responsible for the Conservation and Management of Biodiversity Area.