Bavaria’s CIPRA Calls For Reorientation Of Cable Car Funding
CIPRA has called for reorientation of cable car funding – protect nature, secure the future, thye say:
"The Bavarian cable car funding guidelines expire at the end of 2025. Decisions are now being made as to which projects will receive public funding in the future. Environmental and climate protection organizations are calling for a reorientation of funding: away from ecologically problematic expansion projects and toward sustainable, environmentally friendly mountain tourism.
Cable cars and their ancillary facilities in Bavaria are subsidized with taxpayers' money. The current Bavarian cable car funding guidelines expire at the end of 2025, and the Ministry of Tourism is currently determining which projects will continue to receive funding starting in 2026. Nature and climate protection associations within CIPRA Germany are now calling for a sustainable realignment of the funding landscape.
Why a realignment is necessary
The climate crisis and the resulting drastic changes in the natural environment require a rethink in the tourism sector. This particularly applies to government funding for technical facilities in the Alpine region, such as cable cars, snowmaking systems, and associated ancillary facilities. Sustainability and the preservation of our sensitive alpine habitats must be at the heart of funding. Long-term, comprehensive concepts are needed that place infrastructure developments in a regional or supra-regional context.
The existing directive supports the expansion and modernization of cable cars and ancillary facilities with up to 35% of the investment costs. Without clear ecological criteria, this leads to massive perverse incentives:
• Subsidising snowmaking systems even though skiing no longer has a future in many regions
• Increasing the capacity of cable cars, which increases the pressure on sensitive mountain landscapes
• Funding for parking lot expansions, which attract additional private traffic
• Adventure installations at mountain stations that put a strain on nature and the landscape
• Year-round operation as a funding criterion, even though sensitive natural areas need rest periods
• This development contradicts the objectives of the Alpine Convention and the principles of sustainable regional development.
Voices from the associations
“What is sold as modernization is often a gradual expansion,” says Axel Doering, President of CIPRA Germany.
Sabine Rösler, chairwoman of the Mountain Conservation Association, warns: "No tourism promotion at the expense of wildlife, vegetation, and the landscape! Mountain forests protect the valleys from mudslides and avalanches – they must not be cut up by new lift corridors."
DAV Vice President Wolfgang Arnoldt also demands: “Snowmaking systems should no longer be subsidized with taxpayers’ money.”
Helmut Beran of the LBV emphasizes: "Year-round operation must not be a funding criterion. Funding must be linked to concrete visitor management measures."
CIPRA demands for cable car funding from 2026
• No funding for snowmaking systems
• Good connection to public transport as a funding criterion
• No funding for parking space expansions
• No support for cable cars with adventure installations and excessive mountain gastronomy
• Deletion of the funding criterion “year-round operation”
• Prioritize promoting renovations rather than expansions
• Transparent allocation and control of funding
• Funding only for regional, environmentally and socially compatible concepts
For sustainable mountain tourism
Environmental and climate protection organizations are calling for a directive that takes the protection of nature and landscape seriously as the foundation for sustainable mountain tourism.
This will enable Bavaria to become a pioneer in sustainable tourism, secure the economic base of mountain regions, and preserve the Alps as a unique natural and living space."
