This weekend alone in Catalonia, 22 mountain races are being held where hundreds of athletes participate. They are often done in protected areas and experts have been warning for some time about the impact that this can have on the territory.
For all these reasons, the Department of Climate Action, together with the Federation of Hiking Entities of Catalonia, has launched a pilot test to promote the environmental referee. This is a new figure that wants to help “make racing more sustainable.” This was explained by the general director of Medi Natural, Marc Vilahur, who detailed that they will ensure that issues such as “land erosion, the impact on threatened species or the generation of waste” are respected.
Let mountain races be an opportunity for the territory and not a headache. This is the objective that Acció Climàtica has set with the creation of environmental referees, a figure who will ensure that mountain races respect the environment.
Precisely this Sunday, the first referees were being trained in the Berga-Rasos-Berga race, where more than 300 runners are participating. The general director of Environmental Policies and Natural Environment, Marc Vilahur, who attended the race, emphasized that “the role of the referees is not of a sanctioning nature, but of consultation and guidance”.
According to Núria Jiménez, one of the 14 people who are being trained to do this task, it is about ensuring things as simple as, for example, that there are no plastic cups at the refreshment stations or that the music is not played. too strong. But also other aspects such as respecting the trails that already exist or taking into account the reproduction periods of fauna.
The project has the involvement of the Federation of Hiking Entities of Catalonia and, in fact, it is in their races where they will begin to be launched, but the Government’s will is to extend this figure to all mountain races held in country. In fact, the FEEC organizes only twenty of the more than 300 that are estimated to take place in Catalonia. The president of the FEEC, Jordi Merino, explains that “the fashion” of mountain races means that there are currently more and more town councils and companies that organize them. According to Merino, the FEEC has been working to protect the environment for some time, but now this regulation “will protect the environment 100%.”
Along with the figure of environmental referees, they also want to implement a green seal to approve sustainable runs and walks.
