WWF Austria Calling For A Comprehensive Reform Of Tyrolean Cable Car & Ski Area Program
WWF Austria is calling for a comprehensive reform of the Tyrolean cable car and ski area program (TSSP). In the future, it should pay more attention to protecting the soil, the climate and biodiversity. “The new program must better protect high-quality natural areas and stop the erosion of land, especially in the higher Alpine altitudes. Soil consumption, the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis have already progressed too far to allow economic profit interests to constantly undermine nature conservation. This is also about our common livelihood in Tyrol,” says WWF Alpine Protection spokeswoman Ann-Kristin Winkler.
Anchor absolute glacier protection
The WWF calls for the absolute protection of the last glacier areas in Tyrol from development by means of a specific ban on new developments and mergers of existing glacier ski areas, as well as the restoration of the stricter rules before the “watering down” of glacier protection in 2005. In the interests of soil and nature conservation as well as the In order to protect the climate, fixed final expansion limits are absolutely necessary - and thus a ban on new cable car and ski-technical developments on all undeveloped areas. “That would finally be a clear line and would prevent lengthy debates about what is to be seen as new development and what is just a mere expansion or merger,” says Ann-Kristin Winkler from WWF.
“The state government must now finally recognize the signs of the times, because the one-sided focus on ski tourism in times of regular heat records is more than just short-sighted - and therefore politically negligent,” criticizes Ann-Kristin Winkler, Alpine protection spokeswoman for WWF Austria. “Our mountains are a finite resource, which is why people want an end to the expansion madness – also in the interests of soil protection. Tyrol must protect its last intact Alpine areas and preserve them for gentle and sustainable tourism instead of sacrificing them forever to unrestricted expansion,” says Ann-Kristin Winkler from the WWF. Politicians must therefore finally clearly reject the strategy of “higher, further, faster” in ski tourism.
