Regional dynamics in mountain areas and the need for integrated policies



16

work of the Consortium for the Study of Perceived Planning Issues of Marginal Areas in Developed
Countries (PIMA) acting in the first half of the 1990s can be taken as relevant to large parts of the
mountain areas, too. It implies that the future of those areas is not inevitably doomed to failure and
that (regional) policy and planning matters substantially. Also there the wish to integrate the formerly
prevailing policy and planning intentions coming to the regions from “somewhere” above and the
bottom-up perspective was called for (Anderson 1994, p. 226).

The long-standing discussion on mountain issues initially had focused on the preservation of natural
habitats and esthetical values. In this regard the origin of the Alpine Convention and its basement with
the ministries of environment is a quite clear example. As further discussion on the applicability of
ensuing documents has shown the future of the Alps can not be developed just along environmental
policies. However, there is still a lack of policies in these regions which relate to all territorial
concepts and political measures relevant.

The specificity of the Alpine area is not any more recalled through a situation of disadvantaged areas
- except for the sector of agriculture and forestry and other activities which are mainly effected by
difficult accessibility. In contrast, it is argued nowadays that the topographical situation underpins the
problems of ecological sensitivity much earlier and in a more acute manner than elsewhere. Hence
political reactions can be expected to be taken (or are required) here earlier. Innovative actions
which are elaborated also with the support of studies on the strategy for mountain areas (OECD
1998a, Dax and Wiesinger 1998, Commissariat Général du Plan 1999) contain core elements of
pioneer characteristics which can be useful to other regions in Europe. In this regard the geographical
conditions and the political experiences with mountain policies favour the notion of the Alpine area as
a “laboratory for the territorial development policy” in Europe (Schindegger 1999).

The Austrian experience shows that successful policies to safeguard environmental amenities and the
cultural landscape while promoting regional development in the mountain areas call for the
incorporation of spatially oriented sectoral policies in integrated regional development strategies. The
most important points are as follows (OECD 1998a, p. 61f.):



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