International Mountain Day: Sustainable Development of Mountain Areas

In 2003, the United Nations General Assembly declared December 11 as International Mountain Day, and we have been observing it worldwide ever since. In this International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development, the Alpine Association of Slovenia also wishes to emphasize awareness and the importance of sustainable mountain development, preservation, and responsible use of mountain ecosystems. The author of this year's message is PZS Vice President Miha Habjan.

This year's theme for the celebration of International Mountain Day on December 11 is "Women Move Mountains". Women around the world play an important role in mountain environments in environmental protection, social and economic development. In many places, they are key to managing various mountain resources, leading defenders of nature, and have a primary role in preserving traditions and cultural heritage. Due to social, socio-economic, and climate changes worldwide, women are taking on even greater and more important roles in the mountain world, but they are often overlooked and neglected for numerous reasons. Due to inequality, the status and potential of women are often inadequately and unfairly expressed. On the day of celebrating International Mountain Day, we thus have an opportunity to reflect on raising equality in the many roles of women in the mountain world.


How important the mountain world is to people around the world is actually quite clear to us. Let me just highlight the fact that a quarter of the planet is covered by mountains, which are extremely important for numerous plant and animal biotopes. They also represent a living space for humans, a source of (drinking) water and other natural resources, as well as space for agricultural, tourism, and other economic sectors.


Mountains are interesting, attractive, inviting, wonderful, mystical... People have been going to the mountains for millennia with various motives. In the 21st century, humans are present in the mountains to such an extent that their presence is harmful in many places - in addition to the broader systemic problem of global warming and its impacts on the mountain world as well, where little can actually be done locally. Finding the right balances between the numerous interests of modern humans and the preservation of mountain nature will become an ever greater challenge.

It is hard to understand today's society of Western man. It is very complex with the incredible influence of rapidly developing technology that is increasingly penetrating modern human life. Mountains are becoming more and more of an antistress to the (too) fast valley life for humans.

Visiting mountains has been becoming mass for some time. Luxuriously in many places. Just think of traffic jams of cars, columns of people on numerous peaks, crowds of ski tourers. If we place this (over)massiveness in the entire tourism sector, even a layperson can conclude that the impacts on mountain nature are significant and not insignificant. On the other hand, (local) people must live off something, and tourism is certainly a sector that enables this.


Why go to the mountains at all? An eternal question where searching for answers in consciousness probably doesn't get us far. The answers lie within the individual, as well as very obvious ones such as the attractiveness and beauty of the mountains, achieving and surpassing personal goals and ambitions, psychosocial and recreational motives. But that's not so important. What is important is the question of the manner of the individual's engagement in the mountains. Here, the individual can do a lot. Must even!



Sustainable development. A phrase that we so often use in connection with the mountain world. We use it in a positive sense when seeking sustainable solutions for numerous challenges of modern humans in relation to preserving the pristine mountain world, but also in a negative sense, when the word sustainability can be just empty talk or a cover for certain partial interests of individuals or even economic associations.


In this dilemma, we realize that it all actually starts, as it ends, with the individual. We ourselves can and must choose the right ways in the manner of mountaineering engagement: when we choose tours we have grown up to, when we consistently follow movement prohibitions due to nature protection aspects, when we use transport means as prescribed... Ultimately, also how we express ourselves in the virtual world. And it's not just about leisure activities; actually even more so when we are bearers or implementers of profitable, capital, and decision-making powers.

Let us be responsible, and sustainability will be self-evident. Unfortunately, nowadays it is not. And with our responsible, and let us add sustainable behavior, when we speak in life in the valley or in the mountains, many things will be different. Perhaps a bit overly idealistic thought. But especially when a person goes to the mountains, they should seek certain ideals.


Let us highlight the importance of true and noble values. Raise children into responsible individuals, change school, work, and other systems for the better, learn and adopt good practices and change bad ones; actually, look into ourselves, raise awareness of the good and try to change the bad. Strive for a better version of ourselves.


"If you want to change the world, first change yourself," says a saying of some thinker. Somewhere you have to start! And let's start with ourselves. If anywhere, an individual in the mountains can relatively quickly realize that the investment, work, or even toil is richly rewarded. Not with money, but with that inner satisfaction that the mountains give us when we go there. Achieved peaks, wonderful views, health, handshakes, sincere smiles, inner peace are intangible capital that we draw from the mountains. Our task, however, is to ennoble it afterwards in valley life and use it concretely.