Guidelines for environmentally friendly expeditions

Prevention is better than cure, goes the old adage, and who could disagree? Now this bit of folk wisdom is finding a new application on climbing expeditions. After the expeditions to clean up base camps in the Himalayas, an evolving environmental awareness is prompting the organization of “intrinsically clean” expeditions. The “guidelines for environmentally friendly expeditions”, launched at the International Karakorum Conference in Nepal and Pakistan in April, could become a useful tool in achieving the aims of this kind of expedition.



Says Professor Beltramo, “the guidelines for environmentally friendly expeditions are a useful tool for anyone wanting to run a climbing expedition and at the same time implement interventions to safeguard the environment. They will also be helpful in preventing and managing actions which could damage the environment.”



In the words of Dr Paola Virginia Gigliotti, they are “the expression of an approach which is mature, environmentally friendly and supportive of the mountains outside Europe, and of the people living in them, and which is based on sound scientific principles.”



These guidelines correspond to ISO standard 14001, and have been worked out by Professor Riccardo Beltramo, Dr Stefano Duglio, and Dr Elena Pandolfi, of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Turin, in collaboration with the National Mountain Institute and the Ev-K2-CNR Committee. The guidelines have been approved by the certification company Certiquality Ltd of Milan, and have the patronage of the International Union of Climbing Associations.



There will shortly be an example of the guidelines being put into practice, during the ascent of Shisha Pangma by a group of climbers who, in collaboration with the Faculty of Economics at the University of Turin, will have the task of testing for the first time the Protocol Applying Environmentally-friendly Criteria to Climbing Expeditions

by dott. Stefano Duglio



Info:

Dipartimnento di Scienze Merceologiche

Università di Torino

tel. +39 011 6705718 – 16

fax. +39 011 6705720

https://web.econ.unito.it/cresta

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