On 27 September 2019, the closing event of the second edition of the Youth Alpine Interrail (YOALIN) project took place at the Alpine Museum in Bern (CH). The project enabled hundred young people to travel this summer across the Alps using sustainable means of transport for an attractive price and hereby getting to know the diversity of the Alps and their residents.
YOALIN was organized by the CIPRA Youth Council and CIPRA International with the financial support of Switzerland, Liechtenstein Austria and Germany. Representatives of the Contracting Parties and of the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention attended the ceremony, where the best pictures and texts produced by the young travelers were awarded prizes.
YOALIN successfully raised awareness about environmentally friendly mobility and sustainable lifestyles. As mobility and traffic are causing around one third of the CO2emissions in the Alps, changing the behavior through refraining from flights and using public transport is a mighty lever to mitigate climate change. The message of the YOALINs was also heard at next day’s national Swiss climate strike, for which the young travelers prepared a placard with the slogan “Short distance flights only for insects!”.