News

Eco-mountain guiding course for youth in Pakistan

21.10.2019

The second phase of the Swat Project – an eco-compatible mountaineering course for local young people in the Swat region of Pakistan – has just been completed.

The project, organized by Mountain Wilderness International (MWI), began in September 2018 when MWI instructors trained 21 students on a two-week course in the mountainous Swat area.

This year, as part of the second phase, the hikers explored numerous areas of the region of Swat Kohistan. The group of 12 was directed by Italian professor and high altitude mountaineer Carlo Alberto Pinelli, one of the founders of MWI. The team relied on their training, conducted at the Falak Sar peak during phase one, and the assistance of six local guides. Last year, the hikers completed a course called “Environment Friendly Mountaineering and Trekking” to ensure that the trek would be responsible and contribute to the sustainability of the mountains.  

The aim of the Swat Project is to publish a handbook on hiking trails and “light” ascents of local mountains, emphasizing the need for sustainable mountain tourism. Project participants will be actively involved in the creation of the handbook, and it will be officially presented in Pakistan and distributed among the international mountaineering community.

The Swat project aims to use the handbook as a tool to improve the livelihoods of local youth by bolstering their opportunities for employment. The handbook will be a mechanism which will help the participants to find work in sustainable mountaineering and trekking. The project is teaching these young people how to promote safe, responsible and sustainable tourism in their mountains.

The ultimate goal is the creation of a study to assess the possibility for a national park in Swat region mountains. Sales of the handbook will contribute to funding this study.

Next summer, the Swat Project plans to implement its third phase. A final trek will take place, in which a group of explorers will travel to the upper Swat mountains. It is after this that the handbook is scheduled to be published and, hopefully, lead to the initiation of the study for a national park.

The Mountain Partnership (MP) was one of the initial supporters of the project, alongside the International Association of Mediterranean and Oriental Studies; the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research; the Italian Academic Alpine Club; the Rome Chapter of the Club Alpino Italiano; and several private donors. The project is in collaboration with the tourism section of the Khaiber-Pakthunkhwa Government, some non-profit and small trekking clubs in the Swat region, the Pakistani chapter of MWI and the Alpine (Mountaineering) Federation of Pakistan.

Read more

Photo from ©The_SWAT_Project