Reducing Emissions in Carpathian Mountain Huts

Background

The Framework Convention on the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians supports high-quality standards for the development of sustainable tourism in the Carpathians. The convention provides for a fairer distribution of tourist traffic by dispersing and redirecting part of the traffic outside the current main destinations and sensitive locations towards areas that have potential but are less developed. More evenly distributed tourist traffic can be fostered by making the hiking conditions on the Carpathian Mountains more attractive. Currently, hiking tourists do not have a coherent chain of welcoming huts. The old huts are lapsed or have disappeared and, hence, pose the risk of being replaced by luxury hotels and guesthouses with an easy, car or mechanical access resulting in the region’s definitive anthropisation. Providing a package of technical solutions and legislative proposals for the creation of climate-friendly public huts is crucial in addressing these issues. Creating premises for aligning hiking conditions in Romania to the highest standards generates a minimum impact on the environment and lowers possible greenhouse gas emissions.

Project

To ensure the creation of climate-friendly huts in the Romanian Carpathians, the project assesses the current situation of the country’s huts. In parallel, it documents the solutions used for the climate-friendly renovation and equipment of existing huts in different high areas of Europe. Building on preceding projects’ experience, the project gathers and promotes the most suitable technical solutions in the form of three hut models. In cooperation with the German Alpine Association’s Carpathian Section, the project brings together the most important mountain associations in Romania in an “alliance for huts” to support its objectives. Through close collaboration with local, regional, and national authorities the project aspires to find new hut locations and develop specific regulations and legislative proposals. Furthermore, it sensitises the public towards sustainable tourism and its benefits.