BiodivTourAlps and Loomi: collaborating for the protection of the mountains

Knowing a natural environment also means learning to enjoy it in respect of its balances. This is the principle underlying the communication and awareness campaign carried out as part of the European project Interreg ALCOTRA BiodivTourAlps, which involves the 7 partner protected areas, 3 in France and 4 in Italy including the Parks of the Cottian Alps, in a joint effort dedicated to the reduction of tourism impacts on biodiversity.

To reach a broad audience, particularly focusing on new participants in outdoor activities, the project partners have chosen to complement institutional communication with the languages and channels of social communication (Instagram) by activating a collaboration with Loomi Outdoor, a French portal dedicated to outdoor activities and discovering the territory.

The campaign, developed during the summer of 2026 and shared on the Instagram profiles of Loomi and the partner Protected Areas, addresses some of the behaviors that can create disturbance to natural environments and to the wildlife: the flight of drones, camping and bivouacking, littering, trampling the land outside the trails, collecting any natural elements, swimming in lakes and streams and, more generally, the failure to comply with the specific rules of the protected areas, including the main safety regulations to adopt in rugged terrains. The content was produced in various formats, from short videos to in-depth posts (the one dedicated to the Parks of the Cottian Alps can be downloaded here), distributed through the social channels of Loomi and the involved Parks, not forgetting a poster displayed in bulletin boards and at shelters within the protected areas with a QR code linking to specific web pages created specifically for this type of communication.

The goal is not to promote new destinations or increase visitation to the areas, but to encourage a more conscious and qualitative enjoyment. In environments characterized by an increasing presence of visitors, in fact, knowledge of the rules represents one of the simplest and most effective tools for preventing harmful behaviors, often linked not to incorrect intentions but to the lack of awareness of the fragility of ecosystems and the current regulations.
A central message of the campaign therefore invites people to get informed before leaving. The rules can change from one protected area to another, depending on the territories and the time of year. Knowing in advance the provisions of the place you intend to visit allows for better planning of the excursion and reduces the risk of interfering with habitats and species present or, worse still, running into penalties.

The collaboration with Loomi thus represents a concrete example of how cross-border cooperation can also extend to communication, connecting the skills of the managing bodies with tools capable of reaching new and diverse audiences. The content of the campaign has been produced in French and Italian, taking into account the specificities of the two countries and the different regulations applied in the individual protected natural areas.

Below are the links to the content customized for each protected area:

• Protected Areas of the Cottian Alps
• Protected Areas of the Maritime Alps
• Natural Park of the Ligurian Alps
• Gran Paradiso National Park
• Mercantour National Park
• Ecrins National Park
• Vanoise National Park