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Montaña Limpia, an App to restore Latin America's mountains

24.03.2021

Acceso PanAm has created a phone application with the support of the European Outdoor Conservation Association to work on cleaning up Latin America's mountains. “Montaña Limpia” (clean mountain) allows users to record information about garbage collections by entering the data about the waste gathered. In this way, the information generated by the application will help to better understanding of the problem of waste in different parts of Latin America and to find and design future solutions.

Acceso PanAm is an international NGO that is dedicated to promoting free access to, and protection and conservation of climbing and mountaineering areas in Latin America. For the past seven years, Acceso PanAm has been working to increase awareness and provide practical solutions for the problem of waste in the mountains.

Montaña Limpia is a call-to-action project that encourages climbers, trekkers and visitors to organize clean-up days in their nearby mountain and climbing areas and use the application to record the type and amount of waste collected. Acceso PanAm calls this form of action "citizen science" – a way of involving people in the conservation of the mountains.

The information collected with Montaña Limpia has the potential to serve as a tool for managing garbage in climbing sectors, trails or mountain areas. Data can be a powerful tool to educate decision makers about the waste problem in mountain areas and empower them to enact good policy. At the same time, it serves to promote change in people’s behaviour when visiting mountain areas by promoting good practices inside and outside natural spaces and drawing the attention to our consumption habits and choices.

On the occasion of International Mountain Day 2020, different communities were invited to organize clean-up days in nearby areas in order to reduce the waste present. Thirty-four clean-up days were organized through the application, in six different countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico) and two workshops were held. During these events, 306 kg of waste were collected and 3 630 pieces of garbage were recorded. Over 70 volunteers covered an area of 146 kilometres, with the participation of 25 organizations.

"Acceso PanAm has accomplished a game-changing project by empowering the community with tools and information to act in favour of their natural areas," says Carolina Padró, Institutional Development Director, Acceso PanAm. "With the simple act of cleaning and recording waste in Montaña Limpia, the present and future of the mountains is being transformed."

The App is available for free download on Google Play and App Store.

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Photo: ©Ramsés Verdugo