ALPINISM AS AN INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF HUMANITY: RESOURCES FOR UIAA MEMBERS

Following a long campaign stretching back to 2009 when UIAA members were asked to lobby their respective governments, late last year, Alpinism was officially recognised by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (please refer to the dedicated article). Cultural heritage recognises various traditions, expressions and the wealth of knowledge that are inherited and passed on to future generations and communities to be preserved and protected. The unique challenges, history and culture of Alpinism was considered to be of outstanding human and social value. The governments of France, Italy and Switzerland played a key role in achieving this goal.

How Members can use Alpinism Assets

There are numerous benefits to Alpinism’s inclusion on the UNESCO list.  There is now an officially recognised document describing the specific characteristics of Alpinism.

Often the term Alpinism is both misused and misunderstood, and therefore creates some confusion among the public when referring to the activities of mountaineering as opposed to Alpinism. No other form of climbing activity has the same history and cultural significance as Alpinism; other forms of mountaineering activities such as hiking have a very broad and diverse scope and fail to have the same defined practicing community, having a sense of community worldwide. Therefore they fail to adhere to UNESCO’s tightly defined rules as set out by the International Convention of 2003.

Having the specific activities and descriptions of Alpinism officially recognised is an extremely useful tool and steps can then be taken to safeguard these practices, ethics and values for future generations. Furthermore, this creates greater opportunity to promote and showcase Alpinism, its activities and values as well as having a duly signed engagement of the concerned states to support this promotion and to continue to preserve responsible freedom of practice and access to sites.

Going forward, there will be opportunities for further countries to join the present, successful applicants. In the meantime, UIAA member federations are encouraged to take use of the Intangible Cultural Heritage assets (see below) to continue to promote and preserve the activity of Alpinism as a reference towards their own respective authorities.

Dedicated UNESCO and Alpinism Resources and Guides

Definition in English (part of Official Decision report)
UNESCO and Alpinism (English)
Deutsche
Français
Italiano