Alpine Association Of South Tyrol Says “Stop Designating New Ski Areas”

The AVS leadership recently met with some of the newly elected state councilors to discuss urgent concerns.

AVS President Georg Simeoni and AVS Managing Director Cristian Olivo presented the following topics to the state councilors: volunteering, nature and the environment, sport, domain land and cross-border projects on hiking trails.

Peter Brunner is the State Councilor for Environment, Nature and Climate Protection, Energy, Spatial Development and Sport and is therefore an important contact person for the AVS. At the meeting with Brunner, Georg Simeoni confirmed the contents of the “Manifesto for more respect for the Alpine region”. In it, the Alpine clubs declared that the development was completed. “We are very concerned about the over-development of our beautiful mountains,” said Simeoni. The AVS calls for a general stop to the designation of new ski areas, especially the advance to ever higher altitudes, i.e. glacier areas. New storage basins for snowmaking on the slopes are no longer allowed to be built. The value of the existing protected areas and landscape protection must be expanded and not further undermined. This is the only way to achieve the EU's goal of protecting 30 percent of the country's area.

The meeting with State Councilor Rosmarie Pamer, which was also attended by AVS Vice President Elmar Knoll, was about volunteering. In the 37 sections and 59 local offices of the Alpine Association of South Tyrol, more than 3,000 officials do around 300,000 hours of voluntary work every year. “Volunteering is the basis of our entire activity,” says Simeoni. Unfortunately, this is made more difficult by strict legislation at the state level and excessive bureaucracy. The three AVS representatives appealed to State Councilor Pamer to simplify the processes for those responsible and clubs. What is needed here is the determined commitment of the state government at both the state and national level and finally concrete facilitation for voluntary work.

The conversation between Georg Simeoni and Cristian Olivo with Regional Councilor Christian Bianchi was primarily about domain grounds. The AVS has been trying for years to reach an agreement for the via ferratas in South Tyrol so that the responsibilities and responsibilities can be clearly clarified. An important point is the clarification of domain fees for via ferratas. The state considers it necessary to charge the trail operators a fee for the via ferratas that run on domain land. This is incomprehensible to AVS representatives, especially since the maintenance work on the climbs is carried out on a voluntary basis and without state contributions and there is no economic benefit from the via ferratas.

The location of AVS refuges was also discussed, as ownership relationships urgently need to be clarified with the domain administration.

At the meeting with Regional Councilor Magdalena Amhof, cross-border projects were discussed; these concern the paths that connect South Tyrol with North Tyrol, but also a documentation project that should support joint film and video productions. The joint projects of upgrading the Helmhaus as a meeting place between South Tyrol and East Tyrol and the new Landshuter Hütte, which stands on the border between South Tyrol and North Tyrol, were also discussed.