The impact that leaves mountaineering between rural society and its environmental conditions were two of the leading issues addressed in the afternoon at the first session of CIMA.
The first session closes with a “fruitful” balance, he claimed CIMA director, José María Nasarre. Five roundtables, with over forty speakers -the half of them foreigners, have tried to background issues such as hiking, environment, competition and other activities taking place in rural areas and are not strictly related to the mountaineering. “Of all the tables are drawing conclusions from what will be the mountaineering and mountain sports in the future,” said Nasarre. One of these conclusions is “that there must be compatibility between the practice of mountain sports and nature conservation. Conservatives are aware of the need to allow certain activities and mountaineers that there are indeed grounds for restricting or limiting access to certain areas. ”
The impact of mountaineering to rural areas has been developing for two hundred years. While mountaineers are the only tourists who flock to natural areas in recent times, not anymore. “Much more lively by more accessible or the communications activities are better people has arrived. Before mountaineers were the only ones connected with the rural population and are now elements but must coexist with other activities such as hiking, rafting, horseback riding, river activities … and also affect rural areas, “he stated Nasarre .
Trails for rural development
In the table on mountaineering contributions to rural development, Giorgio Olvetti, director of the Club Alpino Italiano (CAI), explained how they started in Italy support activities to promote development structures in mountain environments. The Italian Alpine Club pioneered marking trails as well as cross-border collaboration for the use of the network of old roads recovered in order to boost the rural economy.
This enormous task arose from the collaboration between institutions and civil society, manifested through the participation of mountain clubs and volunteers. The impact of this marking of trails is reflected in the increase of visitors to these alpine landscapes, in which a network of shelters run by the CAI provide support for climbers and tourists attracted by these rural infrastructure development.
David Moscoso, university professor and researcher in sociology, has contributed concepts of collaboration and evolution of rural development through European plans, endowed with economic (LEADER Funds and EAFRD) funds. The purpose of these was to encourage the development of unpopulated areas or aged in European regions, places that have imbalances of wealth compared to other more populated areas.
Sergio Rivas, head of shelters Aragon Mountaineering Federation, explained how a company of federal ownership, PRAMES, has been able to provide the Aragonese Pyrenees a complete network of mountain huts that serve important social and sports services. Some of them are, for example, gathering data supplied nivológicos for assessing avalanche alerts or service collaboration with rescue groups.
These are in addition to the activity of placement and restoration of mountaineers who visit the Aragonese Pyrenees. This network remains in service throughout the year and its management has earned, in some cases, ISO 14001 certification for sustainable environmental management.
The Alps are more than 100 million tourists a year
In the roundtable on mountaineering and nature conservation, technical Europarc-Spain, Javier Gómez Limón, has shown the involvement of his organization in planning and management of protected areas in Spain. In his presentation, Gómez has highlighted the lack of hard data on the number of participants of sporting activities in natural areas. By contrast, explained that do exist figures on visits received annually various natural spaces. An example of this is the Sierra de Guadarrama, visited each year by over 3.5 million people, or the Alps mountain range, which receives annually more than 100 million people.
In addition, Gómez Limón has given some recommendations for the management and planning of sporting activities in natural areas: “In organized sports, event managers must first contact the countryside managers to report on the event and apply the appropriate permissions” he concluded.
The coach of Europarc-Spain, Javier Gómez Limón, has shown the involvement of his organization in planning and management of protected areas in Spain. In his presentation he highlighted the lack of hard data on the number of participants of sporting activities in natural areas. By contrast, explained that do exist figures on visits received annually various natural spaces. An example of this is the Sierra de Guadarrama, visited each year by over 3.5 million people, or the Alps mountain range, which receives annually more than 100 million people.
In addition, Gómez Limón has given some recommendations for the management and planning of sporting activities in natural areas: “In organized sports, event managers must first contact the countryside managers to report on the event and apply the appropriate permissions” he concluded.
As for Carreras mountain, another table with more discussion among participants, CIMA director pointed out that this phenomenon until five years ago was a minority, very controlled FEDME (Spanish Federation of Mountaineering and Climbing ) and hardly generated conditions in the environment, which has doubled in five years “and you do not have that control.”
A film about the legendary climbing
The director of Bilbao Mendi Film Festival, Jabier Baraiazarra, has been responsible for closing the first session of CIMA to present the film ‘Valley Uprising’ (Revolt in the valley), winner in the last edition of the prestigious competition and also won the Audience Award. The film tells the story of some of the most emblematic of the mythical Mount Yosemite in the US and was a refuge of the movement hippie climbers. The film has had a successful public beyond the scope mountaineer, to portray exhaustively here, climbing mecca of difficulty and free the world, and be a reflection of American society in the last fifty years. “It’s a film that goes beyond the hero speaks of legendary people who have left the mark on mountaineering. It’s a film that reaches both the jury and the public because it is one of the great stories of the international climbing, and because it is told in a very dynamic, very condensed and with large doses of humor and technical advances in animation and photography 50s and 60s that dazzle the public. It’s one of those movies that the mountaineering world has been waiting for the past years and transcends mountain festivals, “noted the Bilbao.
