Montani:“The CAI must be the voice of the mountain in the institutions”

Young people, women, training, sustainability are the elements discussed at the working tables of the Cai congress

ROME - “The CAI can and must be the voice of the Italian mountains in the institutions” and "we must take on this important role of mediator, even on difficult issues such as large carnivores", keeping in mind that "mountain citizens are the custodians of assets, they have the right to everything that other citizens have, broadband, healthcare, school, work, transport, but mountain citizens cannot be the masters of the mountains".Antonio Montani, CAI General President, says this at the end of the 101st National Congress of the Italian Alpine Club.

Young people, women, training, sustainability, elements discussed at the conference working tables that Montani summarizes in his final speech.“Leave space for young people, recycling is good but don't recycle yourself in CAI positions, leave space for them”, he says, addressing the members of the governing bodies.The president invites, on a more general level, a commitment to "understand how to improve the functioning mechanisms of the CAI bodies" by acting "in a dialogue in the name of openness" between the various components of the body.

From method to merit, “we must not be afraid to address critical issues”, like that of via ferratas, "we have to discuss, but then when a decision is made everyone must be coherent and respect it", hopes Montani.

For the relationship with the world of bicycle "both the normal and the assisted pedaling, we must keep in mind that they will be increasingly present in the mountains, so we must educate on its use and not limit ourselves to saying that we don't use it, if we don't intervene we would remain outside of that world", not being able not even intercept any damage that could result from inappropriate use of two wheels in the mountains, "but our role as a large organization is precisely to operate in the sense of mediation between various instances", continues Antonio Montani, CAI General President, says this at the end of the 101st Congress of the association.

Still on the transport front, “we should get to the point of saying that we use our own cars less and less for excursions, and that we won't do any if we don't use public transport, collective transport”, urges Montani, "we should go back to our founding fathers who took two or three days to get to the mountains, stopping in the villages, buying in the shops, feeding the mountain economy", against the hit-and-run, fast and disrespectful use of nature.

On the point of training “as CAI we must profoundly rethink the approach we have with the scholastic world”, says the president, “too often we approach it in a casual way, with various levels of competence in the relationship with children and young people, while the technical competence relating to the mountains is always high and recognised.We must also call into question the whole world of youth mountaineering which is not able to perform well throughout the national territory.Starting again from environmental issues to rethink our approach to school".

Again, thinking about the European dimension and beyond, “we can seriously do international projects and the contacts we receive are important, they tell us that we are on the right path and must be pursued", reports Montani.

An important theme of the 101st CAI National Congress was citizen science, participatory science, in which every citizen, and every hiker, can observe phenomena and collect data, a circumstance also favored by digital means.“Participatory science seems to be made especially for us, we are like the Carabinieri, there is no Italian valley where we are not present, from north to south, if we are able to imagine projects and articulate them and communicate them, which is the most difficult thing, the CAI will be able to have its say on citizen science", urges president Antonio Montani, closing the 101st Congress.

In all this, “the sustainability, thought as the CAI thinks, is capable of thinking", is one of the themes at the center of the Congress tables.“The 'Sentiero Italia CAI' is an emblematic project - explains Montani - not a hiking project but a landscape one, a landscape which has an environmental component and a social component within it, a project which is a winning model which must be further relaunched and can allow us to speak to the population and indicate positive tourism development".

On sustainability, moreover, “we have a strong responsibility, the shelters. In cases like the Capanna Margherita we must ask ourselves what we can do, even the zero option, the elimination", notes the CAI president referring to the Monterosa refuge put at risk by the melting of the permafrost caused by the ongoing climate emergency which is causing the temperatures, a circumstance that is starting to put the structure which is also the highest refuge in Europe at risk.“We have instead decided to maintain it and develop it further to collect scientific data and carry out research”, explains Montani, but “I will do everything to prevent us from consolidating shelters with pilings.If such an intervention is necessary due to the melting of the permafrost, it must be removed and restored to its initial state.The removal, not only of the unusable bivouacs and the restoration of the places must be financed by the CAI but also by the ministry that follows us"
In all this "a process of certification of high altitude refuges is underway, which are machines rather than buildings, with a building part and a human component, those who manage them, and another human part who are the users", reports the CAI president, “the combination of all these actions determines whether they are sustainable or not.We would like to make it a European certification of high-altitude structures."

Finally, last but not least, “we have 40% of female members, a percentage that drops below 10% in the management bodies and is worse in the technical structures:we must work to change this situation which is not sustainable“, concludes Montani.See you next year for the assembly of delegates in Assisi in May 2024.