Swiss Review 5/2018

Swiss Review / September 2018 / No.5 20 he is proud of the vote of his ownmunicipality. Yet, it is clear that the projects that were foreseen for the national park area in the Locar- nese will not come about. Five million Swiss francs would have been poured into the national park annually. Now there will be nothing. “For us, some civic communityprojects have been affected,” says the mayor, who recalls that all the mayors and civic communities stood behind the national park project in the Locarnese. “For nowwe’ll just let the dust settle and then we’ll see,” says Tomamichel. Will oppo- nents of the national park now bring suggestions and ideas as to how the structurally weak area can be helped? “I doubt it,” he says. Hope has generally died out With the No in the Locarnese, not only has a regional project died, but also hope in general for a second national park in Switzerland. In 2000 it was Swiss environmental organisation ProNatura that initiated the Society The Onsernone Valley, here with a view of Russo, Comologno and the Isorno canyon, which would have been central to the failed Parco Locarnese. Photo: Keystone GERHARD LOB The road up to Bosco Gurin is twisty. The remote picture-perfectWal- ser village lies at 1,500 metres above sea level, making it the highest lying village in the canton of Ticino. Bosco Gurin was one of two mu- nicipalities that in a popular vote on 10 June 2018 approved the es- tablishment of a newnational park: therewere 20 Yes and 17 No votes. Ascona on Lago Maggiore was also in favour. Six municipalities that would have been situated in the new national park, however, re- turned a majority No vote: Brissago, Losone, Ronco sopra Ascona, Centovalli, Onsernone and Terre di Pedemonte. And that spelled the end of the national park project in the Locarnese – an area on the Ital- ian border that features a wild and sparsely populated mountain landscape . In theHotelWalser situated at the entrance to the village, wemeet Alberto Tomamichel, farmer and mayor of Bosco Gurin. One month after the vote, disappointment is still written all over his face, even if The unsuccessful fight for a new national park Switzerland’s big natural spaces are under pressure. More national parks would be the answer. Yet, a promising project in Ticino has just failed. And the prospects for Switzerland getting even one additional national park in the foreseeable future are fading.