ACTIVITIES REPORT
2008 ACTIVITY REPORT
Office activities
Once again, the Foundation’s administration department at Stadelhoferstrasse, Zurich, has dealt with a vast number of enquires about Alpine research, and made every effort to obtain reliable information from competent authorities who are active in the individual specialist disciplines.
The SFAR can still only grant limited support in reply to applications on behalf of scientific projects involving the Alps, as its modest resources have largely already been allocated to projects currently in progress. However, the Foundation endeavours to provide at least a degree of start-up funding for niche products that are otherwise at risk of getting lost in the scientific mainstream.
We are very pleased to be able to take this opportunity to underline the fact that all the donations contributed to the Foundation are used in full for project support.
PROJECTS
Ice Age map
(Prof. Christian Schlüchter, University of Bern)
A map published in the 1950s and revised and printed in the Atlas der Schweiz in 1970 is still used in schools (and far beyond) to show glaciation in Switzerland during the ice ages. Many additional important glaciological discoveries have been made since that time, providing further impetus for a new edition. The new ice age map, showing the maximum extent of the glacier during the first ice age, was supported by the SFAR for a second year in 2008, lending particular encouragement to the work of the authors. The assignment for this new map was issued to Christian Schlüchter, Professor for Quaternary and Environmental Geology at the University of Bern, by the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) Commission on Quaternary Research.
Mont-Miné Glacier/Analysis of timber and peat findings
A scientific publication describing climate change in the (Swiss) Alpine region over the past 10,000 years
(Prof. Christian Schlüchter, University of Bern)
The retreat of glaciers in Switzerland (as well as other areas of the Alps) has now uncovered an increasing number of timber and peat sections that would have been overtaken in the past by earlier phases of glacier advancement. These findings lead to the conclusion that warm phases also occurred in the past, and that some of the glaciers must have been much shorter than they are today.
Evidence has been produced for 10-12 “windows of warmth” during the past 10,000 years, lasting for a total duration of about 5,500 years.
The SFAR agreed to support this publication for the years 2007-2009.
Sales of the Great Himalaya book
The selling of this English-language book, published by the SFAR, was reactivated in 2008.
The two sponsors of the Mountain Research and Development (MRD) project brought the Great Himalaya book back into circulation via Allen Press (USA) (with Thomas Kohler as co-author). Bernhard Banzhaf also acted as another co-author, selling the book directly in Nepal (50 to100 copies).
High Performance Test film, made in 1969
This film by Ruedi Homberger, a professional photographer, aviator and mountain climber from Arosa in Switzerland, has been available in a DVD version since 2008. The mountain-medicine research methods described here are about 40 years old by now, and are therefore mainly of value as historical milestones on the path trodden thus far by mountain medicine (which is characterised by intensive research and rich experience). The film rights remain with the SFAR. One copy of the 60 DVDs taken over by the SFAR was sent to the President of the Swiss Society for Mountain Medicine (the “Gesellschaft für Gebirgsmedizin”, SGGM), Dr. med. Pfeifhofer, who will present a contribution about the Foundation at the society’s Forum Alpinum. As a Member of the Board of Trustees at the SFAR, O. Oelz has provided particular support for this project.
Baffin Island film, made in 1953 (to document the former polar research activities of the SFAR)
The rights of use to the trilingual Swiss version are equally shared between the SFAR, Fritz Hans Schwarzenbach and the Weissfilm GmbH company, thanks to a generous contractual accommodation by former Member of the Board of Trustees, Fritz Hans Schwarzenbach.
The digitised film was successfully presented to the general public at the Swiss Alpine Museum (SAM) on 23rd April 2008.
Science et Cité / BaseCamp 2009
At the ordinary meeting of the Board of Trustees on 17th November 2008, it was suggested that the SFAR should participate with Prof. Christian Schlüchter at the 2009 Science et Cité events, which would take place in the form of “Base Camps” at various Swiss cities. The SFAR therefore contacted Science et Cité and Prof. Ch. Schlüchter. Prof. Schlüchter will already be taking part with the Burgdorf Technical University on the subject of landslips, and showed great interest in extending that presentation by the SFAR-supported projects (especially glacier fluctuations).
The SFAR had also contacted Science et Cité by the end of 2008. The possibility for the SFAR to take part in the Base Camp at Bern was retained (the other locations had already been assigned).
Support for a book on Augusto Gansser (former Member of the Board of Trustees)
“Augusto Gansser – the global explorer”
An application from the family of Augusto Gansser for support for this book, published by AS Verlag, was approved. The book appeared in the summer of 2008.
Jacot-Guillardmod Foundation
The aim of the Jacot-Guillardmod Foundation is to present the photographic collection and diary of the Himalayist and doctor Jules Jacot-Guillardmod (1868-1925) to a wider public, along with the Alpine and scientific activities of other well-known members of this family. The SFAR made a nominal contribution to the settlement of the estate of Jules Jacot-Guillardmod.
Symposium on “25 years of high-altitude medicine in the Capanna Margherita”
This symposium took place from 9-12 October 2008 in the Teatro Civico, Varallo, Val Sesia (Italy), and was supported by the SFAR. Board of Trustees Member Oswald Oelz was involved as both a member of the organising committee and as a speaker. High-altitude medicine represents one of the core interests of the SFAR, which has always supported this type of research project in the past (see the 1969 “High Performance Test” film).
“Pro Montes Prize” project
The basic idea of this type of prize is to promote projects that will allow new workplaces to be created in the Alpine regions. This is intended to involve employment opportunities with a close connection to the Alpine environment itself, including those based on mountain sports, agricultural (and/or Alpine) activities, or perhaps tourist activities with a sustainable orientation.
Some of the parameters and limitations, the focus, the selection criteria and any collaboration with other institutions/organisations have not yet been resolved sufficiently, so some work is still being carried out on the Pro Montes Prize project. The SFAR has therefore not publicised this project yet, except on this website.
Reconnaissance project on Alpine biodiversity
Biodiversity analysis on the open country biotope threatened by forestation in the Alpine region
In contrast to the opinion of researchers working within the area of Alpine ecology, who are familiar with the parameters influencing Alpine diversity, the risk potential represented by rapidly-increasing forestation for those animal and plant species that are dependent on open country is barely known to the wider public. Every year, the Swiss forest continues to expand by an area as large as Lake Thun, which is equivalent to 18 football fields per day (the Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscape, BUWAL, 2005). The population must therefore be alerted to the urgency of investigation into the Alpine open country biotope.
A biodiversity-related rationale should therefore be set out in a popular-science style, based on a brochure, a report or a short film on the Internet, showing how the cultivated landscape zones in the Alps, which contain open country biotopes including light woodland and cultivated moorland as well as pastures, are destroyed by lack of cultivation and forestation.
Only when the urban population can be roused to join in the action against the already massive loss of biodiversity dependent on cultivated land in the Alps is there any chance that a law to preserve the Alpine pastures (similar to the law passed to preserve the forests) might be implemented at some stage in the future.
Closing remarks
Once again the 2008 Activity Report closes with the words:
"The existence of a viable Alpine environment will be guaranteed by constructive co-operation between the type of nature protection that suits humans and the retention of a cultivated landscape in a way that suits nature."
Thomas Weber
Chief Executive of the Foundation