Nature-Positive Rheintal: Andreas Kipar at the Green Days St.Gallen 2026

Bringing together municipalities, companies, universities, energy providers, and civil society, the Green Days have become one of the Canton of St.Gallen’s most important platforms for discussing the transition toward climate neutrality and resilient regional development. Across more than 40 events held throughout the canton, the initiative makes the energy and climate future tangible through dialogue, projects, and collective action.

Against this backdrop, Andreas Kipar addressed one of the key questions facing the Rhine Valley today: how can rapidly growing territories respond to increasing climate pressure while strengthening identity, biodiversity, and quality of life?

The Rheintal is experiencing profound transformations. Urban densification, rising temperatures, heavy rainfall events, and land consumption are placing increasing stress on both settlements and ecosystems. Yet within these challenges lies a unique opportunity: to rethink landscape not as residual space, but as strategic infrastructure for the future.

Drawing from both international experience and case studies from LAND Suisse, Andreas Kipar presented practical and scalable approaches for a Nature-positive regional transformation. The lecture connected global frameworks, such as climate neutrality goals and ecosystem-based planning, with concrete local applications capable of supporting municipalities and regions in their transition processes.

Topics ranged from Sponge City principles and the 3-30-300 rule to Nature-Based Solutions, ecosystem services, and new methods for making Natural Capital visible and measurable within planning processes. Through examples from projects developed in Lugano, Airolo, South Tyrol and other European contexts, the keynote demonstrated how landscape can actively improve climate resilience, ecological connectivity, and social wellbeing simultaneously.

At the core of the discussion was a simple but urgent idea: landscape is not decoration. It is one of the most valuable resources available to our cities and territories.

The event also highlighted the growing importance of regional cooperation. Through its long-term commitment to sustainable settlement and mobility development, the Verein St.Galler Rheintal continues to foster dialogue between municipalities, institutions, economic actors, and local communities, reinforcing the understanding that ecological transformation can only succeed through shared responsibility and collective vision.

Participating in the Green Days represented an important opportunity to contribute to an ongoing conversation about how regions can evolve in harmony with Nature, not only mitigating environmental risks, but generating new forms of spatial quality, resilience, and cultural identity for future generations.