ProMontesPrize
The ProMontesPrize 2021 for the future of the Alpine cultural landscape goes to the historian Romed Aschwanden
The ProMontesPrize of the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research, SSAF, was awarded last Saturday, 11.12.2021, within the symposium “Future of the Alpine Cultural Landscape”, in collaboration with the Forum Landscape, Alps, Parks of the Academy of Natural Sciences, on the Day of the Mountains at the Alpine Museum of Switzerland in Bern.
The prize winner is Dr. Romed Aschwanden, doctoral student at the Department of History of the University of Basel under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Martin Lengwiler.
In his dissertation on “Politicization of the Alps; Environmental Movements in the Era of European Integration (1970-2000)”, and specifically in his paper “Between Preservation and Use; Environmental Protection in the Alps in the 20th and 21st Centuries”, historian Romed Aschwanden outlined three phases of society’s approach to the Alps within the ProMontesPrize competition.
From 1900 to 1970, the idea of protection dominated, and nature was perceived as the opposite of culture. This movement was characterized by the urban educated middle class and culminated in the creation of the National Park. At the same time, however, Mr. Aschwanden also recalls the view of human intervention at the time, which attested that a Grimsel dam certainly had the potential to help shape the landscape. And also recalls that terms such as cultural landscape, biodiversity and climate positivity were not yet anchored in the social vocabulary.
The 2nd phase from 1970-1990 then saw the ecological turnaround and also the change from the educated middle classes to the protagonists directly concerned in the Alpine region, whose Alpine Initiative was successful in 1994 but – it must be said – has so far only been partially implemented.
According to Aschwanden, the 3rd phase from 1990 onwards is the phase of development towards integral protection, towards the symbiosis of man and nature. And it is also the phase of networking, characterized by the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps CIPRA.
In conclusion, Romed Aschwanden called for the Alps not to be described as a crisis area, but as an area of necessary coexistence between nature and man and – nota bene – also as an area of joint commitment between the humanities and the natural sciences.
The ProMontesPrize, worth 3,000 Swiss francs, honors this young research as an important contribution to securing the future of the Alpine cultural landscape.
Certificates of Recognition 2021
In addition to the award winner, the other nominees of the ProMontesPrize competition were also honoured with a certificate of recognition and 1,000 Swiss francs each:
Dr. Arnaud Barras, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern; with the paper:
“Assessment of the influence of climate change and land use change on the decline of an endangered mountain bird species”
Dr. Ana Stritih, Institute of Spatial and Landscape Development, ETH Zurich; with the thesis:
“Management of mountain forests for an uncertain future”.