ACTIVITY REPORTS
ACTIVITY REPORT 2009
Foundation offices
The SFAR foundation's secretarial office once again directly responded to numerous inquiries concerning current and historical trends in alpine research, or forwarded such inquiries for further consideration to experts competent in specific areas of study.
Requests for assistance
In the year under review 2009, once again various requests for financial assistance were submitted which could not be granted. In consideration of the foundation's limited budget, these grant requests were evaluated as follows:
The available means are focused on those projects whose goals best match those of the foundation.
Requests are evaluated with respect to their scientific content and relevance as well as their originality and the interest they might inspire in a wider public.
Great reluctance is exercised when alternative possibilities and commitments for the financing of a project exist.
In general, our foundation makes a point of assuring at least initial support to niche projects in danger of being pushed aside by mainstream alpine studies.
We would like to note here that donations to the foundation are entirely devoted to project support.
PROJECTS
Ice Age Map
(Prof. Christian Schlüchter, University of Bern)
The map of the ice age glaciation of Switzerland which has been used until now in schools and beyond was published in the 1950s and was then reedited and printed in 1970 in Atlas der Schweiz [“Atlas of Switzerland”]. In the meantime, significant glaciological discoveries have been made which have given impulse to a new edition of this map. The task of producing a new ice age map was given by the Commission for Quaternary Research of the SCNAT to Christian Schlüchter, professor of quaternary and ecological geology at the University of Bern. The new ice age map will present Switzerland at its last glacial maximum at a scale of 1:500,000. The honorarium will be sponsored by the Geological Institute of the University of Bern together with the SFAR.
As already stated in the “Activity Report 2008”, numerous additional time-consuming questions arose which demanded clarification, especially with respect to southern Alpine regions. As a result of this, the final author's proof was delayed until late autumn 2009. This was followed by the task of color-matching, as the map is to be issued with eight-color printing. The release of the finished map is planned for March 2010.
Mont Miné Glacier: An Analysis of Wood and Turf Findings
A scientific publication on climatic change in (Swiss) alpine regions over the last 10,000 years (Prof. Christian Schlüchter, University of Bern)
The SFAR has approved support of this publication for the years 2007-2009. Various results of this work have already been shown in presentations by Prof. Ch. Schlüchter on glacial and climatic variation in the Holocene. The Mont Miné glacier, with its large number of wood and turf finds, is significantly indicative of the process of glacial retreat in this period – especially as these finds very well document a period of glacial retreat (certainly better than is the case with all other glaciers).
Due to the great demands of the Ice Age Map and other urgent research projects, this publication on Mont Miné (which is essentially finished) had to be postponed once again.
Geological Conference
Quaternary Research Conference 2011 in Bern (International Union for Quaternary Research INQUA), organized by Prof. Christian Schlüchter
The SFAR expressed that it was essentially in approval of project-oriented support, conditional on SFAR's presence at the conference. Corresponding inquiries have been initiated on the part of SFAR.
Science et Cité: Basecamp 9-13 September 2009, at Waisenhausplatz in Bern
Prof. Ch. Schlüchter together with the Fachhochschule Burgdorf [“Burgdorf Technical College”] took part in an event organized by Science et Cité with their “Basecamp”. There, along with other work (especially concerning landslides), discoveries concerning glacial developments in the Holocene were presented.
The SFAR received an invitation to participate in one of the first coordinating meetings of Science et Cité. In connection with the Basecamp event on Thursday, 10 September, on the so-called “Natural Hazards Day”, our foundation was present with an updated SFAR flyer and was represented by its president, Etienne Gross.
In fact, the results of Prof. Christian Schlüchter's research on glacial (and climatic) variation would have fit thematically with the main events on Friday and Saturday, the so-called “Climate Days”. However, research results like those of Prof. Ch. Schlüchter, which do not lend themselves to easy adaptation into the current scientific-political mainstream, seem to be excluded from such events. Indeed, merely to allow a “parenthetical” presentation of these results required certain pressure on our part. As we were informed by Science et Cité, a significant goal of this event was to illustrate man-made climatic change. Therefore, information or research results that do not directly support the communication of this message were not planned (or desired) by Science et Cité.
TOP to TOP, support of Dario Schwörer's activities
Foundation council member and secretary, Thomas Weber, in the name of SFAR continued his support of Schwörer's expedition: “1st Expedition over 7-Seas to the 7-Summits only by Nature's Power”.
Jacot-Guillardmod Fund
Since its one-time support of the Jacot-Guillarmod Fund the SFAR has received the “Bulletin de l'Association Famille Jacot-Guillarmod” as well as an invitation to the association's “Assemblée Générale” .
Mountain Research and Development MRD
Based on its supporting association, the International Mountain Society IMS, MRD seems not (or no longer) to be dependent on the financial support of SFAR. However, according to an inquiry by SFAR, the MRD is essentially still interested in cooperation. This can, according to MRD's and SFAR's needs, be clarified ad hoc.
Educational Project on the endangerment of Alpine biodiversity by encroaching forests and on the “Pro-Montes Award” (a competition for the promotion of employment opportunities in mountainous regions)
Both projects were deferred in the reporting year in favor of a joint project which respects both of the central priorities of our foundation: the promotion of employment opportunities in mountainous areas and the preservation of alpine biodiversity. This project is:
ÄlplerInnen [“alpine herdsmen and herdswoman”] – an AlpFUTUR Subproject
In connection with the joint project AlpFUTURE of the research institution Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon (ART) and the Federal Research Institution for Forests, Snow and Landscape (WSL), the subproject “alpine herdsmen and herdswomen” attempts to identify the significant decisive factors in seeing “Alp” as an attractive place of work. The conservation of alpine meadows promotes a mountain-specific profession at the same time as it protects that aspect of alpine species diversity which depends on cultivated land from being ousted by encroaching forests.
The SFAR is the sole donor for this joint project. The project is scheduled to be carried out between December 2010 and February 2012. The financing of the project's costs will be covered by tri-annual payments directly out of the foundation's assets as well as through a third-party donation destined for this project.
Concluding Remarks
This activity report closes with a statement which expresses the foundation's raison d'être, its purpose, its core priority and its mission:
“In the service of mountain regions worth living in, Alpine research investigates and propagates the requirements for a symbiotic relationship between a preservation of nature attuned to human needs and the preservation of cultivated land attuned to nature's needs.”
| Etienne Gross | Thomas Weber |
| Foundation President | Secretary |