YPAC 2017

March 27th – 31st in Innsbruck/A

General topic: Demographic Changes in the Alps

Subtopics (allocated to four committees)

Committee 1: Attractiveness of Alpine Regions
  • Pull-push factors
  • Migration patterns
  • Family friendly conditions
  • Youth-specific offers
  • and others …

 

KEY QUESTIONS: How can Alpine rural areas be turned into attractive places for living, working, starting a family, growing up? Should rural areas be supported through state subsidies in order to reduce rural-to-urban migration? Should rural areas be more subsidised than towns/cities in order to encourage people to stay there?

Committee 2: Employment Trends
  • Jobs for young people / students in rural areas
  • Infrastructural improvements
  • Chances for start-ups
  • Suggesting nature-specific education programmes
  • and others …

 

KEY QUESTIONS: How can Alpine regions sustain and grow a highly educated workforce? Should we attract large industrial players (e.g. chemical, metallurgical, pharmaceutical, environmental engineering industries etc.) to Alpine regions in order to also attract and keep highly skilled workers? What are the possible environmental risks of attracting such companies? Should we support and expand tourism, an important employer in the Alps? How could this be harmful to nature?

Committee 3: Refugees and Integration
  • Application process for refugees
  • Housing possibilities
  • Education offers
  • Young people's contribution to a successful integration of refugees
  • and others …

 

KEY QUESTIONS: How can the Alpine regions benefit from the current high inflow of migrants to Europe and what are the best ways to integrate these new members of society into the Alpine community? Should we try to tackle the demographic imbalances in Alpine regions, due to rural-to-urban migration, through fostering the settlement of refugees in these areas? Could such measures revive these increasingly declining and underserved rural locations?

Committee 4: Protection of Nature / Natura 2000 Projects in the Alps
  • Economy versus ecology
  • Areas worth protecting
  • Overusing space through building projects
  • Suggesting concrete Alpine regions to be included in the Natura 2000 concept
  • and others …

 

KEY QUESTIONS: What are the current pressing issues regarding climate change and protection of nature in Alpine regions? What new opinions are there on waste management, urban sprawl and environmentally friendly energies?