September 30, 2024 | 16.05
READING: 2 minutes
Switzerland and Italy are redrawing their borders due to the melting of glaciers. This was announced by the Swiss Federal Council, which approved the signature of the amendment project. Part of the affected area will be below the Matterhorn, one of the highest mountains in Europe, and close to several popular ski resorts. Those with France around Geneva were also rectified.
In high mountain regions, long stretches of the Italian-Swiss border are defined by the watershed line represented by the ridge of glaciers or by areas of perpetual snow. However, as glaciers melt, “these natural elements evolve and redefine the national border as it is determined dynamically,” the government writes in a statement.
The area affected is that of the Testa Grigia/Plateau Rosa, the Carrel refuge and the Gobba di Rolli, all close to the Matterhorn and famous ski resorts, including Zermatt.
The new borders were defined taking into account the economic interests of both parties. It is believed that the definition will help both countries establish who is responsible for maintaining specific natural areas. In the case in question, the Joint Commission for the Maintenance of the Italian-Swiss Border developed a project in May 2023 to rectify the border, “in accordance with the economic interests of the two parties”.
The exact border changes will be implemented and the agreement will be published once both countries have signed it. The approval process is underway in France and Italy.
The suffering of the glaciers
Every year an annual report is published by the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network (Glamos), which attributed the record glacier losses to consecutive very hot summers and very low snowfall in winter 2022. Researchers say that if these weather patterns continue, the thaw will only accelerate.
Last year, Glamos warned that some Swiss glaciers are shrinking so rapidly that they are unlikely to be saved, even if global temperatures were kept within the 1.5°C increase target set by the Paris climate agreement.
Experts say that without a reduction in greenhouse gases linked to global warming, larger glaciers such as the Aletsch, which is not on the border, could disappear within a generation.
In recent years, numerous discoveries have been made about Swiss glaciers due to their melting and rapid retreat. Last July, human remains found near the Matterhorn were confirmed as belonging to a German mountaineer missing since 1986.
Climbers crossing the Teodulo glacier above Zermatt noticed a hiking boot and crampons emerging from the ice.
In 2022, the remains of a plane that crashed in 1968 re-emerged from the Aletsch glacier.
The body of missing British mountaineer Jonathan Conville was found in 2014 by a helicopter pilot who noticed something unusual while delivering supplies to a mountain refuge on the Matterhorn.
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