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Improvement of good governance of climbing and mountaineering in Europe
The presidium established an agreement with its partner the European Union of Mountainnering Associations (EUMA) and became a partner in the ERASMUS+ project “Improvement of good governance of climbing and mountaineering in Europe”, together with the Czech Mountaineering Association (Český horolezecký svaz), Deutscher Alpenverein, Österreichischer Alpenverein, Planinska Zveza Slovenije (ERA member), Macedonian Mountain Sport Federation (ERA member) and the Charles University of Prague. The main project objective was to set up and implement principles of good governance in hiking, mountaineering and climbing sports at the European level. There were 3 key issues (mountain huts, mountain trails and rock climbing areas) identified as a fundamental framework for climbing and mountaineering infrastructure in Europe. The project had three consequent phases: initial, strategy and implementation phase.
The project lasted for 3 years and ERA was represented by its experts in each key issue.
The project has created mechanisms for implementing good governance principles not only within the EUMA itself, but also through the transfer of good governance principles to its members. Within the main goal, the project focused mainly on following good governance principles, which will be implemented:
- clear definition of objectives and strategic plan for EUMA
- definition of stakeholders, their roles and ways for their involvement
- setting up of communiction, decision making and implementation strucktures of the EUMA strategic plan
- setting up European ethic codes, recommendation’s, examples of good practise and standards for selected issues
Implementation of selected good governance principles was reached through following partial objectives:
- analyze state of the art for the 3 pre-defined issue with reflection to selected good governance principles (stakeholder, communication etc.)
- based on the analysis define the stragegical concept, structure and mechanisms how EUMA should work in cooperation with its members
- implement initial and multiplication activities which start the EUMA Strategic concept
During spring 2022, there were organised Multiplier Sport Events to discuss the main topics with the experts from the whole of Europe.
MSE Trails: 1-3 April 2022, Bechyně, Czech Republic
29 participants from 13 countries discussed:
- Trail definition
- General guidelines for way marking
- Waymarking in Europe (brochure)
- Via Ferratas and secured trails
- Future European trail strategy
- Trail management
- Legal status of trails
- Trail database
- Practical excursion: Leading Quality Trail-Best of Europe & Via ferrata
MSE Rock Areas: 8 – 10 April 2022, Osp, Slovenia
31 participants from 10 countries
- Ethical code
- „Do“ and „Don’t“ on bolts
- European Bolting found
- Rock climbing area management
- Future European rock climbing strategy
- Problems of rock climbing areas
- Rebolting
- Course standards
- Future format
MSE Huts: 1 – 2 May 2022, Skopje, N. Macedonia (along with the GA of EUMA)
26 participants met to discuss the main goals as:
- to present results of WG huts/Erasmus+
- to show possibilities to solve the environmental problems on huts
- to network between the associations on issues with huts
- to imagine the big rule that huts have in touristic and protection issues
The whole project ends by 31 December 2022. The steps to finish the project were conducted 2nd December 2022 in Munich:
- to integrate feedback from the MSEs
- to set measures for the strategy
- to finalize the definitions
- to build the new database
- to publish the results
Working group: TRAILS
One of the important outputs of this project under the working group “trails” was the waymarking brochure called “Waymarking in Europe”, a reference book on how the waymarking is done in Europe. The brochure includes a description of 44 waymarking systems in 34 European countries and in addition, an overview table with signs across Europe. The book was created for the walkers, who decides to walk in the unknown country and understand the signs and signposts they should lead them safely to the destination.
For updates and improvements pls. contact: secretariat@era-ewv-ferp.com
The boards of EUMA and ERA will meet in the beginning of 2023 to discuss the way-ahead on the implementation.