“Metrò Walser” in Val Formazza, the project does not convince the Swiss landscape Foundation

The relaunch of the “Metrò Walser” in Val Formazza, which is the tunnel that would connect Ossola and Vallemaggia, is not liked by the Swiss Foundation for landscape protection. Raimund Rodewald, the president of the foundation, expresses uncertainty about the tourism project.

 

“An underground,” objects Rodewald, “will bring excessive building pressure on Bosco Gurin (Canton Ticino), and will again provoke an emotional debate on future projects for ski lifts, hotels… In addition, it risks to disorientate and divide the local population (around fifty inhabitants)”.

 

The concern expressed by the President of the Swiss Foundation for Landscape Conservation is the perspective of a financing exclusively at the expense of private businessmen, which would end up marginalizing the municipality of Bosco Gurin and the other local authorities.

 

Rodewald ends his stance by remembering the failure, two years ago, of the vote for the establishment of a National Park in the Locarno province, in which there would also be Bosco Gurin and he says he is available to work on a project which incorporates the objectives of environmental conservation and safeguarding landscape and cultural heritage. Also Franca Olmi Frigerio, first President of the Valgrande National Park collaborated on the project, in the beginning, with the strategic aim of creating a large cross-border protected area.

 

Translated by Andrea Rota and Sara Mentasti

Reviewed by Prof. Robert Clarke