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Sensitive ecosystems and habitats in the Alps : consequences for tourist development

Thomas SCHEURER - Inter-Academic Commission on Alpine Research (ICAS), Bern, Switzerland

 

The Alps is one of the most important holiday areas of Europe. Tourism is therefore an important source of income and development for the approximately 12 million inhabitants of this mountain area. The analyses carried out by BAETZING (1995), which included 41 % of Alpine communities, show that throughout the whole area approximately onethird have over 48 % of their area dedicated to tourism and almost half of all regions (47 %) have no real tourist activity. Throughout the whole of the Alps, 8 % of communities are strongly tourist-oriented, only the Bavarian Alps with 30 % and the Slovenian Alps without any tourist communities clearly deviate from this figure. These tourist communities have populations (1500 to more than 3500 inhabitants) and surface areas that are often higher than the average in the Alps.

Summary

To what extent does tourist development endanger alpine ecosystems, habitats and landscapes ?

1. Until now, a distinctive tourist development has affected approximately 1/3 of regions and 1/5 of communities in the Alps. Tourism consequently does not extensively endanger the alpine environment.

2. In extreme cases, however, tourism has resulted in considerable pollution of ecosystems, habitats and landscapes, with the result that it impoverishes its own resources - an intact alpine environment and landscape - by the effect of negative feedback. Ecological damage is greatest where the tourist use is in natural areas, i.e. in areas that are not cultivated or protected and are especially sensitive to human interventions and disturbances.

3. Open cultivated countryside and conservative management of alpine ecosystems are essential to the agricultural and forestry sector with tourist exploitation in mind. Application of correct agricultural and forestry practices can consequently profit from tourism, which then has a share of the responsibility. Withdrawal of agriculture has direct negative consequences on mountainous and sub-alpine hillside areas and is visible in the degradation of landscapes and ecosystems. Disappearance of the primary activity affects the remaining core areas of intact alpine agricultural activity at low and medium altitudes.

4. The greatest danger to alpine ecosystems and habitats in the future lies in the dynamics of tourist growth. The expansion of transportation or accommodation capacity or the creation of new attractions directed at the tourist market will continue to reduce the consideration of ecological factors and increase the pressure in sensitive areas.

 

Concentration of the tourist use in the Alps

If the 41% of the approximately 6000 Alpine communities analysed are divided according to tourist intensity, (proportion of beds to number of inhabitants, without taking into consideration day visitors), the following picture emerges (BAETZING, 1995) :

Proportion beds	Communities %	Number / population
> 2,5	1 %	23
1,0 - 2,5	7 %	177
0,5 - 1,0	12 %	280
0,1 - 0,5	39 %	945
< 0,1	40 %	968

Tourism is clearly concentrated in particular locations within the Alps. A similar concentration of tourist exploitation is also to be expected on a community level. Since a predominant part of tourist activity throughout the Alps area takes place on installations (transportation, railway networks, ski slopes, sports centres), the proportion of surface area developed or intensively used for tourism is normally less than 20 % of the total community land, for example in Grindelwald it is 15 % (WIESMANN, 1999)

The pollution of mountain ecosystems through tourist exploitation and development is consequently concentrated on restricted sections of the Alps, especially in regions where a single tourist activity has developed or where tourist development has been encouraged to catalyse the rest of the economic activity.

Basic data of tourist development in the Alps

Tourism has developed across the Alps in regions already populated and farmed for centuries and that have a high proportion of agriculturally used land and hence forest-free zones, in comparison with other mountain areas such as the Rocky Mountains. Unique and separate cultivated countryside has originated from agricultural and forestry exploitation. These landscapes reflect the specific and diverse adaptation of the development to the socio-cultural and nature data and show a high degree of biological and scenic variety. These cultivated alpine landscapes embody one of the main resources of tourism in the Alps and are a frequent reason for the choice of holidays in the Alps.

The primary activity thus produces essential conditions for tourist use :

1. The continuous agricultural and forestry exploitation has persistently marked and "stabilised" existing ecosystems (landscaping, drainage, use of the biomass, maintenance, etc.). Tourism has consequently developed largely on stabilised surfaces and in existing inhabited areas that lie outside the paths of avalanches, mudslides or landslides or in the shelter of forests.
2. The forest-free surfaces, agriculturally developed and used, often represent over 50 % of the vegetation-covered area in communities and offer favourable conditions for tourist exploitation, particularly for accommodation, ski slopes or for attractive hiking routes.

In areas with a distinctive agriculture, tourism has consequently found favourable conditions for development. Hence, tourist exploitation is largely superimposed on land used for agriculture and forestry. Marked by the primary activities, the ecosystems have a close relationship with the cultivated countryside, the stability (for example with regard to natural dangers) and the existing natural riches (for example, the quality and biological variety of habitats). These areas can therefore also be considerably affected by later tourist exploitation.

All across the Alps, there are also areas where tourism has not found land sufficiently prepared by agriculture and forestry, because the steep or poor nature of the land meant that exploitation was not possible or because the primary activity itself - like in some parts of the western Alps - had already abandoned these hillside areas in the 1960s. In these areas, the tourist exploitation is concentrated in the valleys, alpine pastures, and high mountain regions lying above the tree line. Tourist sites constructed in such areas after 1960, such as new winter sports resorts, are often situated away from existing inhabited areas on sites of former alpine pastures or even above the tree line. For the construction of tourist installations, extensive work was necessary in these areas (new roads, levelling, and land clearing).

These observations indicate the pollution of the ecosystems and the countryside caused by tourist development and exploitation depends on the presence or absence of agricultural and forestry exploitation in a given area.

Agricultural exploitation systems in the Alps

In the Alps, very different agricultural exploitation systems (agricultural forms) have developed (MARTONNE, 1926 and MATHIEU, 1998). Apart from intensive and special cultivation (wine, fruit, allotments, and chestnuts), in appropriate valleys, livestock farming is the basis of the mountain economy in a large area of the Alps. Livestock farming (cattle, sheep) has allowed different exploitation systems to develop geographically, separated by various levels of altitude. The common element of these exploitation systems is that the more profitable valleys are dominated by the culture of fodder and the poorer lands at higher altitudes are used during the summer as pastureland. Since land suitable for forage is restricted to the valleys (areas of permanent inhabitation), forage culture was extended in many areas to the hillside areas. To prolong the period of use, additional pastureland was gained by forest clearance on sub-alpine slopes.

The intensity of exploitation generally decreases with altitude, and each exploitation step shows a clear difference in the intensity of cultivation depending on the suitability for exploitation. Farmers move from one exploitation step to another, from mowing to pasture, depending on the respective vegetation record level (transhumance).

Figure 1a gives a general picture of the exploitation steps of the alpine livestock economy. Deviations from this profile are to be found in hillside situations. Whereas steep land is not used or only in terraces because of low population densities, lack of suitability or has been abandoned, in the valleys intensive cultivation is found (Wallis), in forest-free areas there are sheep (western Alps) and in mainly forested or scrub-covered hillsides there is a forestry economy (Figure 1b). Consequently, the differences in the exploitation systems are seen primarily in the use made of steeper land (mountain or sub-alpine).

On the basis of the agricultural and forestry exploitation, permanent areas of habitation can be identified (valleys and lower slopes with 3-4 harvests per year), medium altitude areas (with 1-3 harvests or pasturing per year), sub-alpine pasture areas (with pasturing twice per year) and alpine pasture-areas lying above the potential tree line (with pasturing once or twice per year) (Figure 1a).

Figure 1 (Freehand drawing)

Pollution caused by tourist development and exploitation of land

The potential for ecological damage

The sensitivity of alpine ecosystems faced with tourist exploitations (the potential for ecological damage ¹ shows the following connections with existing primary activities :

1. In principle, the potential for ecological damage to land used for agricultural and forestry purposes is considerably less than that of uncultivated land. This is explained by the maintenance and stabilising measures taken by farmers to preserve the productivity of the land (reproduction; BAETZING, 1988). Where the "productive-reproductive" (stabilising) action of agriculture does not exist, habitats and ecosystems are particularly sensitive to pollution and to interference from tourism.
2. For agriculturally used land, intensively farmed land has a lower potential for ecological damage than extensively farmed land: in fact, the lower the intensity of cultivation, the greater the biological and scenic diversity and hence the more sensitive countryside habitats are to disturbances caused by humans and interventions.
3. In wooded areas, the potential for ecological damage is connected to forest functions: protective forests and valuable habitats for game show a high potential for ecological damage from tourist exploitations, useful forests without special protective functions, a lower potential. Only a small part of alpine woodland is directly affected by tourist activity because of its steepness.

As long as tourist exploitation is restricted to useful forests and to(relatively) highly cultivated agricultural land, (meadows andpastureland with primarily mechanised farming), the danger ofecological damage and the associated "destabilisation" remains low. Where tourism arrives in an area of relatively low cultivation (relative to the altitude), enormous adaptation is required to ensure theparticular ecological, biological or scenic functions and values are not affected. These areas, mainly on the steeper slopes, often have a scenic peculiarity and variety that is especially sensitive to tourist development. Finally, the tourist exploitation that is really critical for ecology and countryside is that in non-cultivated, protected areas, in a natural state or abandoned to nature.

Ecosystems, habitats and landscapes sensitive to tourist exploitation

Of the variety of ecosystems, habitats and landscapes in the Alps, the following are especially sensitive to building and disturbances caused by tourism (Figure 1) :

Biologically valuable meadows and pastures (biological diversity)

In areas of varied cultivation, usually extensively farmed and in subalpine pasture areas, the complexity and quality of the habitats for plants and animals, and hence the biological diversity, are especially high. In contrast, the biological diversity is reduced in areas of permanent population by human influences (development, use of fertilisers), and in the higher alpine altitudes through climatic conditions.

Poor meadows and pastures that are biologically valuable are usually only partially affected and damaged by tourist exploitation, particularly near tracks prepared mechanically or by installations like mountain lifts, mountain bike paths, toboggans, golf courses or footpaths.

Because of the close relationship between the diversity of the species and the cultivation of the land, endangering of the biological diversity in the steeper slopes mainly arises from agriculture (intensification or left fallow).

Habitats for game animals

Game animals with particular or extensive habitat needs find the undisturbed habitats they require on the slopes and forest areas between the permanently inhabited areas and the upper tree line. Among these species, at times widespread and generally very sensitive to disturbance, are pheasants, certain other species of birds such as woodpeckers, and ungulates (chamois, deer, etc.) that appeal greatly to visitors to the area. Areas close to the forest edge are especially sensitive to human intervention and disturbance. For example, they provide the reproductive sites for pheasants, and winter or daytime shelters for ungulates. In this context, transportation, ski slopes or footpaths as well as all peripheral activities are especially critical, because these habitats have often already been weakened and have relatively small populations (Schiess, 1988).

In the alpine pasture and rocky areas live different species adapted to these conditions, such as the snow hare, marmot, chamois and ibex. Studies have shown that constant and therefore calculable disturbances such as that resulting from footpaths or tracks do not endanger the survival of neighbouring populations. For game animals, a critical influence is unpredictable activities away from installations, such as paragliding, hang-gliding and different forms of skiing such as off-piste skiing. Such disturbances result, for example, in the chamois becoming harassed by constantly fleeing and finally seeking refuge in the forests, where they endanger the forest renewal by their feeding (BUWAL, 1996).

Humid areas (high and low moor land, meadows)
In humid areas, most of the flora is sensitive to alterations in the water supply (draining) and mechanical interventions (walking, building, etc.). Because of the long time required by the humid areas to recover, the damage caused by building is difficult to repair. Humid areas are particularly endangered because they are scenically appealing and they are usually only gently sloping and therefore are attractive for tourist exploitation. 

Alpine grassland and shrub heaths
As long as the vegetation cover is neither disturbed nor destroyed, grassland above the tree line is amazingly stable. However, it is not possible for the vegetation cover at this altitude to regenerate if it has been damaged by mechanical means (footpaths, mountain bikes tracks, ski slopes) or even destroyed (changes in terrain, levels, road construction), so that artificial sowing is necessary with resultant slow growth. Such surfaces are therefore susceptible to erosion and present unattractive gaps in the colourful picture of alpine grass-heaths. 

Lakes and streams
In the Alps, many rivers and streams have been severely modified by hydraulic power installations, with the result that only approximately 10% of the bigger rivers can be regarded as being in their natural state (MARTINET & DUBOST, 1991). Like Alpine lakes, the rivers that are still natural are a special attraction for tourists, particularly for watersports such as rafting or canoeing. These activities affect the riverside vegetation, which is sensitive to being trampled, and the water fauna particularly during spawning and incubation periods. In addition, problems can occur with water quality in winter when the number of inhabitants reaches a maximum and water levels are at their lowest, resulting in insufficiently diluted sewage. 

Forests
Tourist activities in the mountains only take place in a small part of the forest area and even then they are mainly concentrated on existing paths, as with hiking. Degradation involves forested areas on the edge of ski slopes (forest clearance, various types of skiing), or mountain bike routes. More extensive danger to forest stability lies in the overexploitation of the forests since the 19th century, which continues to have an effect today, and more recently in atmospheric pollution (new forest damage).

Areas permanently frozen (Permafrost)
At altitudes above 2500 - 3000 m, permanently frozen areas exist that thaw only superficially in the summer. Building, changes to the land and alterations to the drainage system of the permafrost zone may result in landslides or encourage mud or rock falls, endangering areas including those in the valleys. It is foreseeable that with global warming permafrost areas will become increasingly unstable and tourist activities will become more risky. 

Cultivated and natural landscapes
Tourist development has greatly depreciated formerly agrarian landscapes by giving them a technical and urban character: in inhabited areas (by urban-style dense development or roads) and in mountain pastures (by transport facilities, as well as buildings and roads) (GROSJEAN, 1986). Today, intact alpine cultivated and natural landscapes in tourist regions are relics to be found away from developed and exploited areas. Where typical agrarian and rural cultivated landscapes have been preserved, they are often on the cultivated slopes and embody the agrarian and rural image of the Alps. In these areas, tourist construction and development must be developed with great sensitivity if the rural character of tourist regions is to remain visible.

In regions strongly affected by tourism, wider intact natural landscapes are usually restricted to the higher alpine levels where the countryside and ecology are very sensitive.

Dangers connected with the dynamics of growth of tourism

The tourist exploitation of land and the resulting pollution of sensitive ecosystems, habitats and landscapes often seems to be only an indirect result of the dynamics of the growth of tourism (MESSERLI 1989, MANGER-VILLAGE & MILLERS 1986). The consequences of future exploitation of the land for ecology will depend on a) the continuous expansion of facilities and capacities and b) a deterioration of the socio-economical conditions for agriculture. 

Expansion of tourist exploitation of the countryside 

Continuing growth in tourism generally leads to :

• a reduction in available facilities
• the existing capacity no longer being sufficient
• the existing natural and cultural resources becoming scarce.

To maintain the growth dynamics, such deficits and bottlenecks must be removed by offering new facilities, providing additional capacity and developing new resources. Tourist sites are subject to a development driven by growth and which has its own dynamics. These dynamics are shown by bigger projects and investments being justified by the existence of competition on the tourist market, by the necessary development of destinations (offer diversification), by improved access (extension of roads and parking facilities), by reaching new types of customers or with the preservation of jobs in the building sector. This forced growth means that the need for investment and action is strong and that the margin for decision and adaptation, particularly with regard to ecological necessities, is correspondingly reduced. As a result, contrasting points of view occur between desire for development and protection precautions (for example, in favour of air, landscape, habitats or nature).

Tourist regions are marked by strong tendencies resulting from expanding exploitation and represent a critical risk for ecology and the countryside : 

Expansion of inhabited areas

The expansion of inhabited areas can be worrying in several senses. The suppression of agriculture, the aesthetic debasement of the countryside and the loss of rural character through urban construction has already been mentioned (GROSJEAN, 1986). A serious potential danger when determining new construction areas lies in the natural risks (avalanches, floods, mudslides, etc.). 

Increasing traffic

 The continual growth of tourist and local traffic is responsible for a significant consumption of land (above all because of parking areas and airfields), for high noise levels in town and village centres particularly in winter, and in areas where cold air masses do not disperse there are problems of air quality with the known resulting phenomena (poor air quality in the valleys, new forest sicknesses). Finding a solution to traffic problems is urgent in most tourist areas (FIF & Metron 1999) for environmental protection and for reasons of image. Alpine areas that have successfully banned cars from their streets, such as Saas fee and Wengen, can be seen as models. 

Expansion of ski areas

Together with the extension of the European traffic network and the resulting improved access to the Alps from the surrounding agglomerations, a massive increase in the capacity of tourist transport has taken place in the last 10-20 years. Since 1970, the capacity of tourist transport in mountain areas has virtually tripled in Switzerland. In many places, this development was often motivated by winter sports and day visitors that caused numbers to reach a peak. A key point was the capacity of the transportation between the resort in the valley and the ski area. Where these capacities are considerably developed, there is a massive expansion of the usable tourist area (ski slopes, alternative skiing) in the Alps into the nearby steep and rocky areas or through links with neighbouring ski slopes. This phenomenon particularly affects the winter habitats of game animals situated on the edge of the forest (black grouse, capercaillie, winter refuge of ungulates), which were already rather limited in intensively used areas. 

At the same time as the capacity is developed, for several years increasingly bigger surfaces are being covered with artificial snow. Snow cover further damages the meadows and pastureland that are poor in nutritive substances and rich in species and delays the growth of the vegetation. Above all of great importance, snow cannons require a large quantity of water at a time when water is least available. Large reservoirs must therefore be constructed and a massive encroachment on the countryside must be accepted. 

Development of new areas

As an alternative to the densely populated valleys and the mountain areas that are already intensively used for tourism, additional potential for new installations is being sought on hillsides that are as yet undeveloped and in the high mountain regions. 

On steeper slopes, terraced land offers the most suitable prerequisites for new installations such as cross country ski tracks or golf courses. These areas are often humid and particularly sensitive to building. Precisely because humid areas represent a considerable tourist potential, the protection of marshland is poorly accepted by the tourist industry, for instance in Switzerland. New tourist installations in these areas are often unwelcome from the aesthetic point of view: they often affect cultivated landscapes that are still intact. 

Because of recent winters with poor snowfalls and the expected raising in the snow line as a result of the predicted global warming, ski areas in the high mountain regions where snow is certain are increasingly attractive for development, as in the case of the Rosenhorn in Grindelwald (Switzerland). The strongest arguments for ecological considerations (permafrost, landscape) must be used to oppose these projects.

In addition to conventional tourist activities such as hiking and skiing, numerous trends in sport have become generally accepted in recent years such as golf, mountain biking, river rafting, paragliding, mountaineering (CIPRA 1998). The areas or installations of these activities usually extend beyond the existing installations and affect ecosystems and habitats that until now have hardly been affected. This problem particularly affects and endangers natural water courses, humid areas and habitats of game animals that have until now been almost undisturbed.

Deterioration in the socio-economical conditions of agriculture

For economic reasons ² alone, communities could give up agriculture for tourism. However, as mentioned earlier, agricultural and forestry activities make an essential contribution to the tourist value (stabilisation of ecosystems, guaranteeing forest protection, conservation of open land, maintenance of cultivated countryside³.

The interactions between the tourist sector and primary sector as part of the local economy will play a central role in the preservation of mountain ecosystems. Research by the Swiss MaB programme has shown that tourism exerts a considerable influence, both positive and negative, on the socio-economic conditions of the agriculture in three main areas: the job market, (possible additional income from part-time work), the expansion of the tourist construction (removal of agriculture from its normal land) and the recognition of agriculture and the rural culture in village communities (MESSERLI, 1986).

If the socio-economic conditions develop because of tourist growth dynamics to the disadvantage of agriculture, for example by rationalisation of the transport sector, by further expansion of land reserved for habitation and traffic or the rejection of the rural population and its culture in a marginal social position, it will cause an acceleration in the structural changes in the agricultural exploitation. The modernisation of agriculture resulting from the agricultural policy is proceeding unhindered in the direction of a low number of large operations beside which some sideline businesses can still be kept going. This phenomenon is accompanied by a concentration of the cultivation of agricultural and forestry land, the decline of the active rural population and the marginalisation of the rural culture. Among other unfavourable factors, the growth of tourism endangers the socioeconomic structures and the land essential for working agriculture, on which to a considerable degree is founded the stability of the ecosystems and the conservation (regeneration) of today's cultivated landscape.

The business development just described has hardly any serious ecological consequences in the permanently inhabited areas or in the alpine pastureland as long as the cattle are moved in accordance with the seasons. Individual unstable fallow land often lies in zones where avalanches start.

On the other hand, the entire sub-alpine level (sub-alpine pastureland), particularly sensitive to new types of exploitation (SCHEURER, 1989), experiences drastic changes caused by the concentration of agricultural businesses and land. These lands are left fallow on a large scale and are subsequently covered in vegetation. Abandoned land can be attractive from an aesthetic point of view (HUNZIKER 1995), but as an extensive phenomenon it detracts from the final intact cultivated landscape that also contains areas of great biological importance (Figure 1).

If, in addition to agriculture, forestry exploitation also disappears from the forested hillside, inhabited areas and roads below the unstable protective forests (particularly if the trees are of the same age) will be exposed to higher risks, which can only be reduced through costly technical constructions.

Consequences for tourist development

These points show that dynamic development in places with distinctive tourist growth may result in an expansion of the tourist exploitation of land by construction of houses and installations and by activities outside the main installations, and at the same time may reinforce the geographical concentration of primary activities. The alpine ecosystems, habitats and alpine countryside are so disturbed and damaged by this development that continued tourist development will lead to a fundamental problem of potential and resources: the land that may be used for building and exploited by tourism is largely urbanised and developed and the alpine rural and cultural resources are much reduced, particularly by the disappearance of agriculture.

When deciding to maintain the dynamics of this development, the problem of potential and resources caused by the growth of tourism is normally avoided by compensating for the lack of potential and poor resources with those outside the area, i.e. the tourist exploitation of the land expands into adjoining areas or creates extensive connection systems with neighbouring places. The ecological problems generated in the centre of growth are therefore distributed across a wider area. Such expansion usually occurs from tourist centres without important agricultural activity, i.e. with largely forested hillsides.

As a counter strategy to the geographical spread of tourism, MESSERLI (1986) demands the re-orientation of the tourist development to forms of tourism that are more social and environment-friendly.

This transformation can only be achieved by freezing or restricting the tourist capacities and the inhabited areas.

A central role is played by the function of regulating the economy and ecology assumed by the mountain economy, which is based on feedback from the tourist development with the socio-economic and sociocultural conditions of agriculture. Acceptable tourism must therefore make its objective the preservation of functioning agricultural and forestry activities in favourable socio-economic conditions.

For strongly developed tourist sites and regions, consistent protection of resources is possible to preserve countryside that is still unspoilt, for example in the form of natural reserves. The large number of nature parks created in the Alps in the last 10-20 years seems to confirm the chance of success of such a strategy (SCHEURER & KUEPFER 1997).

An essential prerequisite for a qualitative transformation of tourism is the recognition of imperative growth requirements, which is shown in the socio-economic conditions of agriculture, in the reduction in facilities on offer, in the existence of capacity bottlenecks or poor natural and cultural resources (natural and cultivated countryside). In the sense of sustainable forward-looking development of tourism, it is essential to recognise early any possible dangers to ecology and countryside based on the developments described.

 

References

BAETZING, W. (1988) : Oekologische Labilitat und Stabilitat der alpinen Kulturlandschaft. Fachbeitrage zur Schweizerischen MaB-lnformation Nr. 27, Bern

BAETZING, W. & M PERLIK (1995) : Tourismus und Regionalentwicklung in den Alpen 1870-1990. ln. LUGER K. & K. INMANN (Hrsg) : Verreiste Berge. Kultur und Tourismus im Hochgebirge. Innsbruck : Studienverlag

BUWAL (1996) : Tourismus/Freizeitsport und Wildtiere im Schweizer Alpenraum. Schriftenreihe Umwelt Nr. 262, Bern

C!PRA (1998) : Alpenreport 1. Daten, Fakten Probleme, Losungsansatze. Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern

FIF & METRON, (199) : Verkehrsmanagement in Ferienorte - Lenkungsmassnahmen, Akzeptanzprobleme, 1 mplementierunsgprozesse.

EDMZ, Bern

GROSJEAN, G. (1986) : Aesthetische Bewertung landlicher Raume. SchluBberichte zum Schweiz. MaB-Programm Nr. 20

HUNZIKER, M. (1995) : The spontaneous afforestation in abandoned agricultural lands : assessmant by locals and tourists. Landscape and urban planning 31: 399 - 410

KRIPPENDORF, J. & MUELLER, H.R. (19986) : Alpsegen, Alptraum. Für eine Tourismusentwicklung im Einklang mit Mensch und Natur. Bern

MARTINET, F. & M. DUBOST (1991) : Les dernières rivières naturelles des Alpes. ln: CIPRA (1991) : Leben für unsere Alpenflüsse. CIPRA-Schriften 1991/8: 53-90

MATHIEU, J. (1998) : Geschichte der Alpen 1500-1900. Umwelt, Entwicklung, Gesellschaft. Wien : Verlag Bohlau

MESSERLI, P. ( 1989) : Mensch und Natur im alpinen Lebensraum. Bern, Verlag Paul Haupt

MESSERLI, P. & WIESMANN, U. (1996) Nachhaltige Tourismusentwicklung in den Alpen - Die Ueberwindung des Dilemmas zwischen Wachsen und Erhalten. ln: HURNI, H. et. al. (1996) : Umwelt, Mensch, Gebirge. Festschrift Bruno Messerli. Jahrbuch der Geografischen Gesellschaft Bern, Band 59, Bern

MUELLER, H.R. (1999) : Der Tourismus als Motor für den Nutzungswandel im Gebirgsraum. ln: WSL, Nachhaltige Nutzungen im Gebirgsraum. Forum für Wissen, 1999, 2

MUELLER, H.R. & M. FLUEGEL (1999) : Tourismus und Oekologie. Berner Studien zu Freizeit und Tourimus 37

SCHEURER, T. (1989) : Die Verfügbarkeit landwirtschaftlicher Ressourcen im Berggebiet. Schlussberichte zum Schweiz. MAB-Programm Nr. 38

SCHEURER, T. & 1. KUEPFER (1997) : Was konnen Schutzgebiete im Alpenraum zur regionalwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung beitragen ? Revue de Géographie Alpine 1997/2

SCHIESS, H. (1988) : Wildteire in der Kulturlandschaft Grindelwalds. Schlussberichte zum Schweiz. MAB-Programm Nr. 335

WIESMANN, U. (1999) : Striking a balance in community-based mass tourism. in : Mountain Agenda (1999) : Tourism and Sustainable Development. Centre for Development and Environment, insitute og geography, University of CH-Berne

 

1 - Potential for ecological damage : Undesired processes that start as a result of human activity because of the sensitivity of the ecosystem. back to text

2 - In Grindelwald (Switzerland), the primary sector only represents 3 % of the gross product, while tourism generates 92 %. etc.). Tourism therefore benefits from these services at an advantageous price and is the main beneficiary of public grants to mountain agriculture. back to text

3 - This contribution by agriculture (extra-agricultural services) is today supported in part by public grants and only a small part is supported by tourism (produce purchase, fiscal income benefiting agriculture). back to text