Mountain Wilderness

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Mountain Wilderness
Founded1987, Biella, Italy
FocusEnvironmentalism, mountain
Area served
Global
MethodOrganization of events, campaigns, lobbying,, consultancy
Website www.mountainwilderness.org

Mountain Wilderness is an international non-governmental organization dedicated to the preservation of mountain areas, in their natural and cultural aspects. The organization was founded in Europe and has a stronger presence in alpine and pyrenean regions. It has, however, a worldwide reach, with representatives and actions on all continents.

Contents

Objectives

Mountain Wilderness shares some of the values and objectives of mountaineering clubs, nature conservation organizations and environmental NGOs, but with clearly distinctinve positions and orientations. Mountain Wilderness was founded by mountaineers and places a strong emphasis on the human experience of wilderness as grounded in individual freedom and responsibility. This humanistic stance originally took precedence on the exclusive defense of wildness, wildlands or wildlife for their own sake. Even in the most remote mountain regions, there remain vanishingly few untouched wilderness zones in a strict sense. Contrary to what a literal interpretation would suggest, Mountain Wilderness does not focus on such ideally pure, pristine wilderness. Nearly all mountain landscapes, and, to an even higher degree, the perception of mountains by humans, bear a strong cultural imprint. Mountain Wilderness works towards the inclusive preservation of this natural and cultural mountain environment at large. This has been accomplished by, among others:

History

Mountain Wilderness was founded in 1987 in Biella, Italy during an international conference convened by Ludovico Sella, scion of a prominent piedmontese family of financiers, statesmen and mountaineers, among which Quintino Sella, the 19th century founder of the Italian Alpine Club. This conference was a follow-up to a similar gathering of mountaineers convened by the Italian Academic Alpine Club on 8 August 1986, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the first ascent of the Mont-Blanc. On this occasion, a "manifesto for Mont Blanc" was issued and signed by a number of renowned mountaineers, among which Sir Chris Bonington, Yvon Chouinard, Reinhold Messner, Doug Scott. This manifesto called for a foundational human right to "open spaces for free adventure". The Biella conference attracted a larger attendance of mountaineers and intellectuals from all over the world, several of whom were to become founding guarantors and founding members of Mountain Wilderness. Among them were Haroun Tazieff, Kurt Diemberger, Jim Bridwell, John Hunt, Wanda Rutkiewicz. The "Biella theses", [1] on which the above mission statement is based, were written during this meeting.

Actions

Some of the earliest and most visible actions led by Mountain Wilderness at the international level have been:

Although Mountain Wilderness had yet to be formally established as an organization when this took place, it was later perceived as an inaugural event. The daring, spectacular character of this action inspired comparisons to similar actions by Greenpeace, but later demonstrations by Mountain Wilderness have generally been more modest. All have been peaceful and none of them against the law.

Guarantors

Guarantors of Mountain Wilderness are a group of intellectuals, writers, mountaineers, world-travelers, who are recognized through their achievements and their long-time commitment to the shared values of Mountain Wilderness. They play the roles of international representatives and advisors for the association.

Among noted former or current guarantors are : Sir Edmund Hillary (NZ) (who was long-time honorary president of Mountain Wilderness), Sir Chris Bonington (UK), John Hunt (UK), Reinhold Messner (IT), Jean-Christophe Lafaille (FR), Haroun Tazieff (FR), Wanda Rutkiewicz (PL), Jim Bridwell , Fausto De Stefani (IT), Kurt Diemberger (AT), Patrick Gabarrou (FR), Roberto Osio (IT), Alessandro Gogna (IT), Carlo Alberto Pinelli (IT) (former international coordinator)

National chapters of Mountain Wilderness

National chapters have also existed at some time in Austria, Belgium, Greece, Pakistan, Slovenia, the Netherlands, the UK, but are not currently active as established organizations in their own right, though individual members may remain active in these countries.

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