Brussels, 07/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - Reinhold Messner, an Italian MEP from the Green Party, has put forward for discussion at EU level in 2002 - a year which will be declared "Year of the mountain" a "Dcalogue of values" for mountainous regions in the Union which cover, he points out, a third of its territory. Mr Messner, who is a mountaineer, underlines, in a press release which extols the unique virtues of an unpolluted natural world, that:
1. European mountainous areas include whole made up of small rural landscapes which bear a cultural heritage (…) managed for thousands of years by human hand and, in some places, of magnificent mountainous landscapes which are of unique and indivisible value.
2. the preservation of these regions benefits all Europeans, because what is at stake is the protection of waters, the safeguarding of areas for the sake of the area itself and for leisure activities, the production of healthy foodstuffs with high nutritional value and finally the protection of a green belt area benefiting in particular areas close to densely populated areas.
3. the precondition for all the activities needed to safeguard the mountainous landscape is the presence of a stable local population who are able to organise their own living areas in an autonomous and responsible way.
4. the value of high altitude mountainous areas, which have only become accessible to tourism thanks to modern infrastructures, lies in the sheer space, the magnificent and uncontaminated silence and landscapes », and also « in the dangers they present.
5. these values must be protected: if we do not want to lose this mountainous world for good, it is imperative that we stop building new high altitude infrastructure.
6. we must avoid making it easier for further incursions into these regions to be made (…) through the use of modern technology (…). Those who go there under their own steam, independently and responsible, without leaving behind lasting traces of their presence, quickly learn to (…) protect these endangered areas.
7. to guarantee a high quality of life to the local population from areas above the wooded boundaries, we need to design transit routes which enable them to reduce acoustic pollution and other pollution as much as possible.
8. the key to sustainable local development is integration between ecological agriculture and tourism. In addition, we would need to encourage interregional cooperation between mountainous areas and give them broad scope for self-government.
9. only the defence of cultural heritage and mountainous landscapes can give the populations of these regions the awareness of the values of which they are the guardians and ensure them a lasting future.
10. the mountainous areas are a valuable defence against natural disasters in the plains and town centres, provided that the sustainability of mountain communities is guaranteed.
Mr Messner points out that the EU had in 1999 adopted a document entitled Perspectives for the development of European areas stating that, in order to ensure sustainable development, Europe must use its areas in a balanced fashion.
Finally, Mr Messner thinks that most of the mountainous regions of European countries outside the EU (which he notes in particular are often remote from town centres) have different problems to those of EU regions and therefore generally need other solutions.