Europe Moves to Protect the Alps : Tourism: A pact among the Alpine nations is criticized as long on aims and short on legally binding regulations.

High in the Alps, helicopters are swooping across once-isolated landscapes, blasting snow in every direction when they set down skiers for runs through fresh powder.

The deafening noise shatters the quiet and puts chamois and other endangered wildlife on a frantic dash for cover.

New high-tech, high-thrill sports like heli-skiing are wreaking havoc in the last remaining wildlife havens of the Alps, and adding to the huge number of tourism activities that are damaging the Alpine atmosphere.

“An animal uses five times as much energy when it flees,” said Ulf Toedter, director of the International Commission for the Protection of Alpine Regions. “In one and a half meters (5 feet) of snow, when it is cold all day and all night, extra energy consumption can mean life or death.”

The Alps long posed an almost impenetrable barrier to travelers and were a source of legends and superstitions.

Now, more than 100 million skiers, hikers and other tourists are flooding the region each year and turning it into a vast playground.

The problems are piling up:

* Forests have been damaged by air pollution or clear cut to make way for more and more ski runs.

* Formerly pristine valleys are crisscrossed by roads, railways and electricity pylons.

* Unique wildlife and plants are endangered or already extinct because of pollution and development.

Governments in the the seven Alpine countries--France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Germany and Slovenia--agree that the Alps are in serious decline.

In an unprecedented step, they have joined forces to try to protect the region’s nature and culture in an accord that took effect this month.

“The most important part of this convention is that for the first time countries will be working together,” Toedter said. “At the moment, competition between countries is dragging environmental standards down.

“If heli-skiing is allowed on one side of the border, communities the other side of the border feel compelled to offer the same to keep tourist numbers up.”

Traditional skiing already has brought 25,000 miles of ski runs to the Alps, and the number of golf courses is expected to double from 150 in 1992 to 300 by the end of 1995. Environmental activists contend ski resorts use up tremendous amounts of water to create artificial snow during months when rivers are at their lowest.

Environmentalists praise the convention as a first step, but contend the document is long on aims and short on legally binding regulations.

The next step is to strengthen the convention’s powers with a series of more detailed measures or protocols on difficult issues such as forests and energy.

The convention will try to set limits on development to avoid more sprawling concrete resorts like Val D’Isere and La Plagne in France, which become ghost towns out of season.

It also aims to tackle the contentious issue of commercial transportation, which has pitted Alpine countries against each other.

Switzerland and Austria have provoked the anger of other European nations by limiting the number of trucks on Alpine highways, which link southern and northern Europe.

Even so, 105 million tons of merchandise are trucked over the Alps every year and the figure is expected to double over the next 15 years.

Traffic on the St. Gotthard Pass alone, the main north-south axis through Switzerland, spews more than 100 tons of pollutants into the atmosphere over one busy weekend, the environmental group Greenpeace says.

It says the large amounts of ozone and nitrogen from vehicle exhaust damage the forests that are crucial in protecting the Alps against erosion, avalanches and floods and in providing sanctuary for rare animals and plants.

“Pollution appears to weaken the tree and make it susceptible to attacks by parasites,” said John Innes, a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Forestry Research. “In some areas, whole slopes of trees have completely gone due to wind blow.”

Pollution is one of the elements that has been blamed for the disappearance of hundreds of species of wildlife and plants.

“Amphibians such as frogs and toads are dying off right through the Alps, and we don’t know why,” said Jim Thorsell, spokesman for the World Conservation Union. “It is certainly a signal that there is a major stress on the system somewhere.”

Experts theorize that frogs and toads are among the first creatures to be affected by air and water pollution because their skins are more permeable.

High altitude makes the Alps particularly vulnerable.

“Vegetation grows slowly at high altitudes and it is at the limit of its range. The soil is also very thin and is easily eroded. Disruption is difficult to repair,” Thorsell said.

Some conservationists talk of setting up more nature reserves to protect endangered species, but there is little room.

Highways and railways have divided the region into pockets too small to give many species enough room to roam, establish territory and breed. Many that do try to cross the road and rail lines are killed.

One environmental report said there were 31 undisrupted areas of more than 580 square miles in the Alps 30 years ago. Now there are just 13.

“We have got to the point where we are never going to be able to have a large self-contained nature reserve of significant size in the Alps,” said Thorsell.

There have been some gains, but conservationists say much more needs to be done.

Alp Action, a foundation based in Geneva, is leading an effort to bring “soft tourism” to the Alps, promoting nature-friendly enjoyment of the mountains and valleys.

The foundation is lining up corporate contributions from as far away as the United States to create demanding trails for hikers and other challenges that call on humans to shun motorized transportation.

Animal species hunted to extinction in many parts of the Alps a century ago--such as the ibex mountain goat, the chamois and the lynx--have been tenuously re-established.

And initial releases of young lammergeier give hope that by the end of the century the awe-inspiring bearded vulture, one of the largest birds in the world, will again breed in the wild and soar once more over the peaks.