Hello,

The organizers of this meeting invited me to present my vision, as a young person, of the Alps and their future. I wrote this text so that we could reflect on the role that youth could play in the Alps of tomorrow.

My introduction will shed light on the reason that drives me to try to act for tomorrow. In the first part, I will talk about my journey and my experience, which have shaped my vision of the Alps and the connection with youth and dreams.

The second part will present, through the eyes of the Little Prince and Greta Thunberg, certain concerns and inconsistencies about this world that also impact the Alps.
A third and final part will allow me to imagine the Alps of tomorrow, which begins today.
In conclusion, I will have only one question!   

Today, at this meeting that brings together representatives from each country in the Alpine region, I have the opportunity to bring you my point of view on the Alps of tomorrow as a young person.

Conceiving the future together, that is the objective of our meeting.

Having a voice, among those of my neighbors who live in the same region as me, in the future that we all share.
What an honor, what a chance!  I was so proud since this morning, and then I thought!
I took a step back and realized that I could only tell you about the chance I have to participate in this meeting in about twenty years…
Because everything I have accomplished to be here today will have no meaning if tomorrow my children, my friends’ children, and future generations can no longer explore the Alps as I have since I was born.
On skis, on foot, rafting or paragliding, I have seen the glaciers, lakes, waterfalls, fauna and flora, all this biodiversity that we must preserve at all costs!
The mountains teach us life with so much sincerity and humility, values that allow us to one day reach the long-desired summits!
On the path that leads you to the top, you must know your limits, you must know how to listen to your body, listen to your rope partner, listen to nature. And if all the conditions are not met, you must be humble enough to sometimes turn back when it’s not the right day.

Once at the summit, there is this moment of sincerity with yourself, with those who climb with you or those you met along the way.
Today at this summit, for the future of the Alps, we must be sincere about the critical ecological situation that concerns us all!
To face the challenges that this observation brings, we will need to show great humility to profoundly modify our lifestyles and our much-coveted but destructive comfort!

I don’t know if there are any mountaineers in the room? Adventurers?
Dreamers; there are for sure!
So you will all recognize yourselves a little in the story I’m going to tell you.

My name is Natael and I’m 26 years old. Some tell me I’m young and others say I’m starting to get old. What I think: the Alps came into existence about 66 million years ago, so even if they are 2,538,461 times older than me, I did the math! From a geological point of view, they have their future ahead of them. So yes, everything is relative! I passed my baccalaureate at the Mountain Professions Training Center, in a small Alpine town called Thônes. It’s a special school where the mountain was our classroom!
During these 4 years of training, I was taught to dare to believe in my dreams!
I was taught to dare to try and therefore to accept failure as well.
During this period of my life, I was taught a lot about the future I wanted to build.

Today I work for the mayor of Chambéry. This city, also called the city of the Dukes of Savoy, has been an Alpine crossroads for centuries of history. It’s here that I was born and caught the bug for mountains, adventure, and sharing.
For almost two years now, the mayor and European deputy, Michel DANTIN, has launched with his team a major consultation with young people aged 11 to 25, in order to rewrite a youth policy that will give the tools to the young people of our city so that they can concretely participate in the construction of tomorrow’s Chambéry. This project, called “Chambéry Connectée Jeunes”, is part of the European GAYA project, with the support of the Alpine Town of the Year association.
As a young Chambérien, it’s a great pleasure to have the opportunity to work on this project that is undeniably focused on youth participation at a “local level. As a young European from the Alpine region, I have taken part in several youth participation initiatives in the Alps, which have allowed me to experience things I never imagined I would have the chance to experience. A few days ago, I visited Liechtenstein during a workshop with Italian, Slovenian, Swiss, Austrian, French, Liechtensteiner, and German friends. For two days, we tried to propose ideas to the representatives of the European Alpine Strategy to improve youth participation in their body. Some of the young people had come to Chambéry for the final conference of the GAYA project in November 2018. I had been assigned to give a guided tour of my city and thanks to an unexpected meeting with the” elected official in charge of participatory democracy in Chambéry, I had the chance to open the doors of the town hall to my group of visitors.
Today I am here, and I can tell you how much we, the young people, want to participate in building tomorrow in the Alps.

The Alps and youth are similar in many ways, and have so much to teach this world!
So I work a lot with young people who also have their future ahead of them! I observe that adults and society, in general, ask them all day long who they want to become tomorrow?
When their role is to know who they are today? And it’s very important for me to support young people in answering this question!
Youth is full of resources and too often you wait for it to become as you had imagined rather than “listening at the moment when it has the capacity to” be subversive!
I have the feeling that in a way, our society has drifted away from youth and all that it can bring us.

Not long ago, I read The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I believe that in writing this book, the writer had the same feeling as me. That’s why in his dedication, he invites each reader to find the child within themselves, because “all grown-ups were children first. (But few of them remember it)!”
The Little Prince is that child hidden in all of us! He’s the traveler, the optimist, the humanist, the dreamer, the carefree one, the adventurer who tries to understand the world in which he lives. He tries to understand the sometimes absurd behavior of “grown-ups”.
Full of innocence, he wanders from planet to planet to protect his flower, so fragile, against the world. His view of all the things around us is often very different from that of the adults he meets.
Because he looks at the world with his heart…
And he tells us: “One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye!”
I have the feeling that the Little Prince is afraid of seeing this world that is dangerously moving away from nature.
So tomorrow in the Alps, nature must reclaim its rights!
Because it’s with all my heart that I see how naturally beautiful the Alps are!

Not long ago, Greta Thunberg, a young Swedish girl whom the whole world knows today, said: “We live in a strange world!”
This strange world, we have created it ourselves!

We should be cautious with this peculiar human madness that would have nature adapt to the supernatural ambitions of the human species. Cloning, GMOs, intensive farming, or even our dreams of immortality that distance us so much from the very essence of what makes life, its finitude…
In the Alps, artificial snow, intensive tourism, uncontrolled urbanization are some examples of this inconsistency between nature and the human species. With each human intervention, we move away from the very essence of what is natural, beauty in its raw state!
But we shouldn’t discard everything from the past! Progress has its benefits when used for coherent and sustainable goals! Like youth, it’s for today that we must ask ourselves the right questions! We should already redefine our priorities, our ambitions, our necessities so that tomorrow’s world is not the result of the egocentric fantasies of some.

The future we hope for; we must do everything to make it our daily reality. Let’s not wait for tomorrow!
It’s the fabulous story of tomorrow’s Alps that begins today that I’m going to try to present to you!

Tomorrow in the Alps, we will have stopped believing that the mountain is an open-air amusement park. Tourists will have become aware that the mountain is a fragile and perilous natural space. They will be more cautious and more attentive to safety rules and will be accompanied by guides if it is necessary to “be. Some mountain areas will be regulated by a rather basic diploma that will be mandatory to possess in order to venture there.
Accidents in the Alps are becoming more and more numerous, yet everyone knows that you don’t jump into the ocean if you can’t swim!
As for ski resorts, they will stop allowing those who can afford it to go to high mountains too easily and without any prevention. If this continues, there will soon be an elevator to climb to the roof of Europe!
I” was in Zermatt last week and some tourists were wearing their beautiful city shoes worth several hundred euros and realized once at 3100 meters altitude that there was mud, snow, and that the air was thinner!
What wouldn’t we do for a summit selfie! Yes, we live in a strange world! …

Tomorrow we will have stopped wanting to shape the Alps in our image, trying to believe that it is possible to remove all the dangers and in a way make them lifeless. What real mountaineers admire in the mountain is its unpredictable and uncontrollable side. It’s the fact that it’s inaccessible and that each climb to the summit becomes a difficult adventure that reminds us of our human condition and makes us always more alive. And this applies to every summit in our lives. If there had been no challenges to overcome, our most memorable achievements would have no value. Believe in my old experience!
Tomorrow in the Alps, the inhabitants will be even more eco-responsible. And I’m optimistic about this! Because even though I’m only 26 years old, it’s enough to witness the fragility of the Alps! And I imagine we are all a little more aware of it every day. That’s why many of us have decided to change our habits. And each Alpine region must continue to facilitate this positive change, through coherent cooperation involving all actors capable of acting sustainably.

In terms of mobility, the use of the cleanest modes of transport will be promoted thanks to an Alpine subscription card that will allow accumulating points with each train journey across the Alps. Depending on the frequency of use, the traveler can then obtain discounts on other trips.
In Alpine cities, public transport fares will have to be capped at very accessible rates all year round, rather than waiting for the air to become unbreathable to decide on an impactful tariff measure.
European cycle paths will be even more practicable and each Alpine city will facilitate the use of bicycles for its inhabitants. Companies will also have a role and for example, supermarkets will offer a trailer loan service to encourage people to come shopping by bike. It will therefore be even easier to move around while respecting the environment…

Tomorrow in the Alps, it’s also the tourist activity that will have chosen to protect nature. Ski resorts will have negotiated offers with railway companies, packages and trains, to encourage tourists to take the train rather than the plane or car!
The use of helicopters for tourism purposes will be limited simply out of ecological awareness. And the use of snow cannons will be limited to a certain number of liters of water per season… In winter, water in the mountains is scarce, and it’s used to artificially produce snow that no longer falls naturally.
Yes, we live in a strange world!
Tomorrow in the Alps, landscapes, fauna, and flora will be protected. By continuing to facilitate sustainable agriculture that protects soils, natural spaces, and consumer health. A local and organic agriculture that primarily benefits the inhabitants of the Alpine region.
Protected natural areas will always take priority over the expansion desires of economic activities that see nature with their eyes while mountaineers love it with their hearts. There will no longer be any threatened animal or plant species in the Alps! Because currently, several exist, and reintroduction programs have already been carried out.
In every city, eco-responsible projects will emerge, as is the case in my city with the installation of beehives in urban areas and the transition to zero pesticides in green spaces to protect bees. Other projects such as BeeWeek or BeeAware are moving in this direction and will contribute to a global ecological awareness.
Because yes, human activity often threatens or extinguishes species, it has reached a stage of ethnocentrism where it has almost forgotten the richness of Alpine biodiversity. This biodiversity that was there long before humans settled where they now call home! Yes, we live in a strange world…

Tomorrow in the Alps, all schools will have a dedicated day each week for practicing mountain activities or theoretical learning about the mountains and the species that live there. They will involve various mountain stakeholders so they can share their vision of the Alps and their role in protecting this natural environment. The mountain guide, local or regional elected official, ski instructor, glaciologist, geologist, shepherd, or farmer. Each must reflect on their impact to then transmit responsible and sustainable solutions to the youth. The educational values of the mountains are numerous and enriching. It teaches us solidarity, effort, humility, respect, courage, determination, lucidity… It is sometimes synonymous with success or failure. And it’s thanks to these values and this mountain experience that the adults of tomorrow will have become aware of the responsibilities that fall to them.
Tomorrow in the Alps, residents will be consulted about political decisions that concern them. They will have several means to share their ideas and participate in decisions. Youth will be an integral part of this democratic renewal that will define a common policy including the Alpine values I mentioned a few lines ago. Through citizen participation tools, we will need to trust a larger majority of citizens so that local democracy in the Alps is more coherent and collective.
I am happy to note that we are not waiting for tomorrow to act, as several initiatives have already been started within various Alpine bodies, and I am a privileged witness. For example, the Youth Alpine Interrail project, which will have its second edition this summer and allows young people from all over the Alps to travel, meet, and become even more aware of the beauty of our mountains. This initiative is supported by the CIPRA Youth Council, and many others will follow.
I think it’s thanks to this dialogue between residents, politicians, and businesses that the Alps will be able to keep these characteristics that connect them to youth; their dynamism, vitality, and beauty…

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Like youth, the Alps are eternal! Whether it’s the Little Prince, Greta Thunberg, or other young people who look at this world with their hearts.
They think about tomorrow, wondering if what we call their dream, their ideal, which seems so disconnected from the reality of some, is not in fact the evidence from which our society has dangerously strayed.
You know Martin Luther King who once said: “I have a dream”, but also Mandela or Gandhi. Their childhood dreams were eternal, they surpassed hatred, fear, they were audacious and ready to change the rules!
It’s thanks to their dreams that the world has become better…
It’s your dreams that will decide the Alps of tomorrow!

So let me ask you a question!
In this strange world, must dreamers grow up sooner or later?

Natael