International Mountain Day, December 11

Let's celebrate life in the mountains, limit driving with motor vehicles in the natural environment.

The General Assembly of the United Nations declared December 11 in 2003

as International Mountain Day. The decision was made after the great

success achieved the previous year with the International Year of Mountains 2002 project

to raise humanity's awareness of the importance of mountains. On this day, December 11,

events are organized in many places to draw attention

to the importance of mountains for life and for preserving biodiversity, and

to highlight the importance of protecting and sustainable development of mountain

areas. Every year, International Mountain Day is dedicated to a different theme

important for the sustainable development of mountain areas.

This year's International Mountain Year is dedicated to celebrating life in the mountains. Mountains are home to 12%

of the world's population. Sustainable development of mountain areas is key to improving the survival of these

often poor and isolated people. On the 10th anniversary of the International Year of Mountains (2002), International Mountain Day

strives to achieve greater involvement of stakeholders/institutions and civil society in the sustainable development of mountain

areas. This is also a concrete opportunity to secure funding for improving the survival of mountain communities.

Special attention will be paid in the UN to involving young people in global sustainable development, as they will be

the future actors. This year, the UN is also focusing on connections between rural development and urban development,

taking into account the implementation of the green economy in accordance with Rio +20 Earth Summit.

On this year's International Mountain Day, as we celebrate life in the mountains, the Alpine Association of Slovenia and

CIPRA Slovenia, the association for the protection of the Alps, are drawing attention to the severe impact on life and visiting mountains due to

increased motorized traffic, and particularly harmful are transports with motor vehicles in the natural

environment. In winter, rides with snowmobiles pose a special problem.

The Law on Driving Vehicles in the Natural Environment, whose draft was submitted by the Ministry for the Environment and Spatial Planning of the RS

for public consultation last year from July 22 to September 11, has been at the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment for more than

a year and a half. At the start of the winter season, when the use of snowmobiles is a problem, it is especially

important to remind once again that such a law is urgently needed to preserve the natural ecosystem and that every

year when the Law is stuck in a drawer due to bureaucratic obstacles is a loss in the fight to preserve the natural

environment, of which we ourselves are ultimately a part.

The non-governmental group for limiting vehicle driving in the natural environment, within which the Alpine Association

of Slovenia also operates, already last year prepared a position, comments and proposals on the draft of the Law on Driving Vehicles in

the Natural Environment, which is to replace the Regulation on the Prohibition of Driving Vehicles in the Natural Environment and certain

provisions of the Forests Act and the Mountain Trails Act. The non-governmental group expressed strong support for

the earliest possible adoption of the law and offered assistance in its implementation.

Given the winter season that has just begun, we call for limited use of natural space as

a space for recreation with motor vehicles, as it has numerous harmful consequences for humans, animals and the environment.

PZS President Bojan Rotovnik warns: "In recent years, mountaineers have increasingly

encountered motor vehicles in unpleasant encounters on mountain trails and off-trail, where drivers are often inconsiderate to

other nature visitors and to nature itself. To satisfy their own needs for adrenaline release

with their activities, they endanger and disturb mountaineers, other visitors and nature lovers, as well as

animals and the entire natural environment. Mountaineers feel not only the noise and smell of vehicles, but also dangerous

evasions from mountain trails, reckless pushing; not to mention how all this scares animals, especially now in

winter time, when due to high snow they cannot even retreat properly and due to lack of food they conserve their energy expenditure. Rides with motor vehicles cause noise in previously quiet areas that were

the last refuge of the most sensitive animals. Deep, visible tracks are left by vehicles also in the soil, undergrowth...

Nature in the mid-mountains and high mountains needs a significantly longer time for regeneration than in the valley world." And

adds: "The PZS Commission for the Protection of Mountain Nature is very active in this area, it has also prepared a leaflet on

the prohibition of rides with motor vehicles in nature – how to act in the case when mountain visitors witness

unauthorized rides e.g. with quad bikes, snowmobiles, motocross etc. on mountain trails and off-trail.

We firmly advocate for the earliest possible adoption of the new law on limiting vehicle rides in the natural environment and

establishing effective supervision over the implementation of the law's provisions."

About the organizations:

The International Commission for the Protection of the Alps (CIPRA) is a non-governmental umbrella organization with national committees in all

Alpine countries, representing more than a hundred societies and organizations from seven Alpine countries. It advocates for

sustainable development in the Alpine area, preservation of natural and cultural heritage as well as regional diversity and

solving common problems in the Alpine area. www.cipra.org/slovenija.

The Alpine Association of Slovenia, www.pzs.si, is one of the largest and most mass non-governmental, volunteer

organizations in the Republic of Slovenia. The Alpine Association of Slovenia is an organization with tradition, in 2013 it celebrates already

the 120th anniversary of the establishment of the Slovenian Alpine Society (27. 2. 1893), of which it is the successor. PZS is

a voluntary federation of societies (since December 2012 it unites 277). The main activity of PZS is connecting

societies and providing conditions for mountaineering in Slovenia and in the international area. It cultivates Slovenian

mountaineering heritage, carries out volunteer work and acts as part of civil society, in the public interest and as

a national branch federation in the field of mountaineering. The mission of the Alpine Association of Slovenia, the entire mountaineering

organization is: Mountaineering as a way of life. The Code of Honor of Slovenian Mountaineers is the value it respects

and implements by the mountaineering organization. The principles of operation of the mountaineering organization are: holistic mountaineering and

its promotion, orientation towards societies, training of mountain visitors for safer movement in the mountains,

protection of mountain nature, expertise and cooperation, transparency of operation and involvement of the public in

decision-making. At the end of 2011, 269 societies (mountaineering societies, clubs,

GRS stations) and 58,389 individual members were enrolled in PZS. Relative to the number of inhabitants of the Republic of Slovenia, more than 2.8% of the total population is included in PZS. Mountaineering societies manage 176 mountain huts, shelters

and bivouacs with around 6,000 beds. Slovenian mountains are visited annually by around 1.4 million visitors, who have available

a network of 1,661 mountain trails with a total length of 9000 km throughout Slovenia.