Experts attach importance to the solutions of research topics. Dr Irena Mrak is a professor at Slovenian institute of environmental protection, engaged in the research of high-altitude mountain tourism. She has visited Pakistan’s Central Karakoram National Park many times to collect specimens and information. There are 4 peaks over 8000 meters and 60 peaks over 7000 meters in the park, which is the most concentrated mountain group on the earth. In 2016, it was included in the provisional list of world heritage sites. In July this year, in the water and soil samples collected from K2 Glacier and Base Camp, the second highest peak in the world, she clearly saw that mountaineering brought disastrous garbage and human excrement pollution. She used data to analyze the risks brought by mountaineering tourism, while not denying the local economic significance of tourism, such as providing jobs such as porters, chefs and tour guides. She suggested strengthening macro management, such as limiting the number of visitors; Establish a sustainable pollutant management system; Adopt an effective mechanism to make most of the economic benefits stay in the local area instead of falling into the hands of foreign companies.
Participants (Source: IMC2022)
Interdisciplinary research is a prominent feature of the conference. One of the topics of Innsbruck University is the microplastics emission of geotextiles in ski resorts. The research proves that geotextile used to reduce melting is the emission source of microplastics; It shows that glaciers are highly sensitive and the destruction of microplastics is irreversible. The harm of human body taking 5 grams of microplastics (credit card size) every week is analyzed. Microplastics Action Plan for 2022-2025 was put forward, calling on ski resorts to support research and calling on all parties concerned to cooperate with scientists to find alternatives to solve this international problem. This project is completed by the cooperation of the Department of Ecology, the Department of Materials Science and the Polar Research Institute.
140 scientific research posters exhibition area (Source: IMC2022)
Experts are leaders of various branches and are good at dabbling in new topics. Dr Fausto O. Sarmiento, chairman of the Commission of mountain geography (igu) of the international geographical union and professor of geography at the university of Georgia, gave two lectures. Soon after the meeting, he invited more than 70 international professionals to participate in the creation of a new book, which is the second of his 5-part series of "Mountain ontology". The content is a corpus of mountain scientific research, and the structure contains 67 fields of vocabulary, 21 of which belong to "innovative subject system fields". He cooperated with two other experts (Russia and Mexico), once again seized new topics and quickly started a multinational talent team.
IMC2022 is an important platform for gathering key institutions in mountainous areas. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), the International Association for Cryosphere Science (IACS) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) all attended and held reports or lectures, and also held collaborative meetings with each other. Dr Carolina Adler, director of MRI, said: IMC2022 is a truly interdisciplinary dialogue, which summarizes the global topics related to mountains and enables us to reflect on how this scientific research group is coping with changes and challenges. We must share knowledge with the society. When people are worried about how fast the environment is deteriorating and still hope to continue to develop, we may not have a solution, but we can provide knowledge and opinions to participate in the solution of the problem. The purpose of our scientific research is to give back to the society.
Dr Stefan Mayr (left), chairman of the meeting, and Dr Wolfgang Gurgiser, chief coordinator (right).
(Source: IMC2022)
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A staunch practitioner of sustainable mountain tourism
The Mountain Club of the Alpine Clubs is a model of sustainable tourism. It was initiated by Austria in 2008, with the aim of protecting the beautiful mountains, rejecting tourism infrastructure and developing sustainable tourism based on nature. This concept has been strongly supported. The organization has received a total of 700,000 euros of funding from the European Union for nine consecutive years, and it was transformed into membership fee support after the funding ended in 2017. At present, there are 35 members of sports villages in 5 countries. The largest village group is Groes Walertal in Germany, with 6 natural villages and 3,400 people. The youngest is Balme village in Italy, with 112 people. In recent years, it also celebrated the "baby boom"-10 babies were born in 8 years.
Mountaineering expedition (Source: IMC2022)
These sports villages have excellent landscape and environmental quality, no noise and no pollution, and are committed to protecting local cultural and natural values and providing quality services to tourists. Visitors can experience high-altitude tourism products all year round, such as hiking, rock climbing, cycling, paragliding, cooking, skiing, ice climbing and snowshoeing, with many options. Some villages are well-known. For example, Malta Village is a sacred place for ice climbing, Kartitsch Village is labeled as "Winter Hiking Village", and Steinbach am Attersee Village is an ideal venue for mountain sports and water sports. Visitors in Austria can also climb the highest mountain in Austria.
The conditions for being selected as a "sports village" are harsh. The village must have the conditions for mountain sports, without large-scale infrastructure projects, the landscape must be beautiful and excellent, the original state of nature must be well protected, and the number of villagers must not exceed 3000. This kind of natural original ecological environment is exactly what some tourists pursue.
Visiting the old copper mine (Source: IMC2022)
One of the jobs of the association is to find accurate customers. The association never pays attention to the number of visitors, only the types of customers. This is a reverse choice in the relationship between supply and demand, so that the sports village can welcome tourists with the same ideas, ensure that the latter will take care of the sports village and try their best to reduce the impact of their carbon footprint. The association is optimistic that with the deepening of the concept of sustainability, such customers will gradually expand, and more and more tourists will choose similar destinations.
The Association of Mountain Sports Villages is strongly supported by the Alpine Convention. The Convention is a treaty to promote sustainable development, aiming at protecting the natural environment of the Alps while promoting development. The Convention involves eight countries, including the European Union, France, Italy and Germany. It has been implemented since 1995, and its permanent secretariat is located in Innsbruck. At present, there are nine working platforms such as "sustainable tourism" and "mountain agriculture", which are quite influential. In 2016, the Convention declared the Sports Village Association as one of its implementation projects. Since then, the Association has been greatly assisted, and at the same time, it has entered a higher level of dialogue with the Convention. The cooperation between the Convention and the Association is a successful example of the combination of macro-coordination and micro-operation.
Sports Village Association has brought enlightenment from many angles: how to balance the immediate interests and long-term interests in tourism development, how to balance the short-term KPI and long-term KPI, and how to balance the economic interests and the overall interests of society, all of which deserve serious consideration. In 2018, all clubs in the Alps unanimously decided to stop infrastructure and only maintain existing facilities. This decision expresses the local people’s desire to permanently protect this mountain range, and it is also an appeal of the Alps to the whole world.
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IMC2022 is a cultural baptism.
The organizer of the conference successfully organized an Austrian cultural feast. Manu Delago, a trendy musician, played the world’s new genre music at the opening ceremony. It happened that he was also from Innsbruck-Austria is truly a "Land of Music", and there are first-class musicians everywhere! The trendy electronic music played by him and the band with special percussion instruments, contrary to the common intense agitation of metal instruments, is long and full of charm, which makes people think, and seems to be brought into the vast night fog in the mountains by music.
The most shocking thing about the venue layout is the dozens of giant photographs hanging high, which have a strong visual impact. Dr. Erika Hubatschek, a famous Austrian mountain photographer, has captured the whole picture of alpine agriculture for more than 60 years, and her works are very infectious. Her daughter continued to spread her works and planned this exhibition with the theme of agricultural women in Alps and Himalayas. Eye-catching giant works always remind people of Do not forget your initiative mind.
Dr. Erika Hubatschek’s Mountain Photography Exhibition (Source: IMC2022)
The campus of Innsbruck University is beautiful, shuttling between history and modern architecture. The largest library has a collection of nearly 4 million books and a rich academic atmosphere. The number of students accounts for 20% of the population of Innsbruck, and they come from all over the world. They can always hear conversations in different languages on the roadside.
All kinds of catering (lunch, coffee and tea, wine break in the evening, reception banquet) of the conference fully demonstrated the local Tyrol cooking. Lunch is original, a plate of baked potatoes with tomato sauce, or spinach meatballs, whatever tastes delicious. There are plenty of coffee breaks, plenty of desserts and fruits, and a variety of local specialty drinks and wines in the afternoon.
Local tyrol food (Source: IMC2022)
A few minutes’ walk from the campus is the center of the old city. Hundreds of years of stone brick roads, churches, bell towers, the Palace Museum, the city landmark "Golden Roof" built in 1500, and the Inn River flowing through the center of the city are all telling the past. Because of the greenery of flowers, the sculpture of birds, the sunshine, the fresh air, and the breeze blowing, the greetings from the Alps are sent again.
One of the sightseeing routes is to take the train to Hungerburg to visit the 16th century copper mining area. Walking in the mountains, once again enjoy the pure air and sunshine in the Alps. Back to the end of the campus dinner, music and beer were laughing, local people used traditional cauldrons and shovels to cook dinner on the spot, and the smoky smell and fragrance mixed in the air, which was truly Austrian style!
Tourist rest place in mountain sports village (source: jause-nah-vor-Bergen _ c-olperehuette)
Participants are very lucky that a scientific conference can be held in such a thick atmosphere of history, culture and art! Dr. Wolfgang Gurgiser, one of the conference leaders, said: We have deliberately invested a lot in non-theme content, because the time outside the conference is as important as the content of the conference. The combination of meetings with the environment and various forms enables people to exchange topics about mountains in the atmosphere of mountains, which is one of our great advantages.
Farewell dinner (Source: IMC2022)
The pursuit of a sense of history, culture and art is not just for entertainment. Long-term edification makes people full of sensibility and perception, and the perceptual scientific mind is the one with the greatest potential to solve practical problems, because it is attached with strong sympathy and sense of responsibility.
Jorge Recharte, president of the Peruvian Institute of Mountain Studies, is one of the few keynote speakers in IMC2022. He is Dr. Cornell, who participated in the development of sustainable tourism in Peru’s mountainous areas, launched the Great Inca Route with the Andean Community (CAN) to promote the regional tourism strategy, and served as the head of Peru’s climate change cooperation project with USAID. He described the mountains like this: vertical, fragile, complex, dangerous, isolated, remote, fragile, risky and high-risky … (vertical, fragile, complex, hazardous, isolated, remote, out migration, vulnerable, risky, High risk… …) He analyzed two cases in Peru and discussed sustainable development from economic, social and political aspects. His rational and meticulous thinking reflected his strong sympathy and empathy.
Regarding the success of IMC2022, Dr. Stefan Mayr, the president of the conference and a professor at Innsbruck University, said: "The success of IMC2022 lies in that its meetings, activities, information and contributions are greater than those of any previous professional conference. This comprehensive force will help to understand the current international mountain problems more comprehensively. The next IMC is expected in September 2025, and we warmly look forward to the arrival of international experts! "
Perhaps IMC2022 gave me the greatest personal gain: seeing mountains is not mountains. It is far from indestructible as imagined. It soars into the sky, cold and lonely. It has to resist wind and rain, hold on to earthquakes, lightning, thunder and mountain torrents. It only goes through knocking, cutting, trampling, digging and cutting, and it will never increase but consume. It watched helplessly as its protective layer disappeared one by one: the snow was melting, the trees were cut down, and the soil and water were losing. What a pity! It can’t talk to human beings, but can only perform its vocation silently. Isn’t it the biggest weak person in the world? ! The mountain on which human beings depend is enough to be called our mother, but how do we treat our mother? !
At the end of the conference, Chairman Stefan showed pictures of mountains and the beating of the heart. The whole audience was silent, only the beating of the heart. Told even more in silence than they had told in sound: The mountain is alive, its heart is beating, its blood is flowing, it is breathing, it is calling … I hope it has heard the message of IMC2022: mankind has heard your call and is acting.
Brief introduction of the author
HaybinaHao: Former Vice President of National Tourism Association (NTA), former Director of Greater China of World Tourism and Travel Industry Council (WTTC), and now a media person in international tourism industry.