The UIAA Mountain Protection Commission has approved plans for a mountain stewardship award and a mountain protection label for environment friendly UIAA approved projects and products.
Both initiatives are aimed at encouraging best practices and best products that will reduce the stress on the mountain environment and protect it for future generations.
The commission intends to facilitate communication by featuring stewardship projects on its website, a virtual marketplace, where those interested in a plan can read all about it and support or donate to it with the click of a button.
UIAA Award for Stewardship: Applicants for the UIAA Award for Stewardship will be asked to submit a stewardship plan that helps promote awareness about the need to protect the mountain environment as well as sustainable and environmentally friendly eco-tourism practices.
The plan should involve areas such as wildlife and flora, resource consumption, energy use, waste generation and disposal as well as proposals that will contribute to biodiversity and limit the impact of climate change.
If a plan is accepted by an assessment committee, companies and groups can use the UIAA Mountain Protector logo to publicize their work for one year. The plan will also be publicized by the UIAA through its various digital media channels.
All UIAA Mountain Protectors logo recipients are eligible for the stewardship award. The winner will be announced at the annual UIAA General Assembly.
Mountain Protection Label: The commission also approved a plan for a new label designed specifically for companies that produce environmentally friendly products that help reduce the impact of mountaineering and tourism on the mountain environment.
Like the award for stewardship, the UIAA Mountain Protection Label will be awarded in the areas of wildlife and flora, resource consumption, energy use, waste generation and disposal as well as products that help reduces the impact of climate change.
The quality standards and the scope of the label are being developed by the UIAA which is also in the process of creating an assessment team and finding sponsors who wish to be associated with the label.
Mountains make up nearly a quarter of all land area on Earth and are home to 12 percent of the world’s human population. They are rich in biodiversity and contain a wide variety of habitats. Poorly planned and implemented tourist activities can have a serious impact on these fragile ecosystems and the communities that live in them.
