Environmental Affairs

(photo: Michel Mouze)(photo: Michel Mouze)

The FAI is committed to protect the natural environment and to encourage its members to take environmental protection into account when practising air sports. You will find below its Code of Conduct.

Protecting the environment has always been an important concern for CIVL and we first appointed a Technical Officer for environmental issues in November 2005. Some early proposals have been agreed and are being implemented (see below Environmental questions and nature protection )

Technical Officer for the Environment is Thomas Sénac
Contact Thomas Sénac

Thomas, born in 1962, is married and has two daughters. He is an engineer agronomist and works presently as environmental officer in an agro-industrial company. He has been flying paraglider since the mid-90s', both in flat lands and mountains; he still flies and practices tandem and towing.
Thomas has been involved in the French federation at all levels and in the French Olympic Committee working groups on sites, environmental affairs and sports in nature.

  • Environmental questions and nature protection

Protecting the environment questions is a real concern in most countries and can impact paragliding and hang gliding pilots.

These concerns are growing as our sports become more popular and the number of pilots and accessible sites continues to increase. Among all aerial sports, paragliding and hang gliding have specific issues to address. Even if we avoid motors to fly (exploiting wind and sun), there remain some concerns about protecting natural sites and the impact of our activity on the environment.

For example, our take-off and landing sites are, in many cases, located in the countryside, often in remote and beautiful areas. Sometimes the construction of access roads, take-off ramps, and increased traffic to these summits are regarded as destructive, an intrusion, and a disturbance to wildlife. When a site is used often for launching or landing, the impact on the natural vegetation can be heavy.

In some places, we fly near or above natural protection parks, and the real (or perceived) disturbance to protected fauna can be a big concern. In others, we share the space with the birds and often fly near their nesting places.

We also share nature with other users, like hunters, who might have different opinions about what needs to be done to protect nature.

And last, but by no means least, Administrations (States, Regions, Counties…) have their own environmental priorities, that might conflict with ours.

  • What to do?

Up to now some subjects have been studied by different associations separately and independently. It is better to work together, and to share ideas and costs.

The aims of CIVL's environmental initiative is thus:

  • to contact national associations to identify relevant persons
  • to build a net of competent people who will work together through e-mail
  • to list our environmental problems, exchange our knowledge and experiences, collect specific legislation, assess the situation in each country, compare the ways we deal with problems...
  • to help the countries where no experience exists.

We could also study :

  • the life cycle of different material, in cooperation with the manufacturer (for example fabric, from petroleum to the dump)
  • the global impact of our sport on the environment.

We will contact the FAI Environment Commission and take part in meetings at this level and with other authorities.

Later, if needed, CIVL might consider subsidising scientific studies, along the lines of those undertaken in France, Germany, UK and elsewhere, looking at whether birds are truly disturbed by hang gliding and paragliding. This work could be done by students to lower the cost.

Of course, the aims of this project are not fixed in stone and will develop according to the ideas of members.

Code of Conduct - Air Sports and the Environment

n/a

CIVL Plenary 2001 Report on environmental matters

Lausanne, Switzerland
Report by Olli Borg (Finland)

All human activities have an impact on the environment – also flying, sports etc. The impacts vary from local to global.

Local

The local impacts have been a problem on many mountain sites (especially in national parks etc.). The local impacts may include :
- Disturbance of wildlife (eg. breeding)
- Noise
- Littering
- Excessive wear of vegetation
From an environmental point of view, these are all minor issues. Nevertheless, the world is changing and we have to face it. It is our responsibility to react and ensure the use of our flying sites in the future.

By far the best way is to adapt our activity to reduce the negative impacts on the environment. To help the task, the FAI has established an environmental commission that has agreed on codes of conduct for the disciplines.

Some methods to reduce impacts:
- Reduce traffic by use of eg buses
- Organize car parking
- Take care of (collect, recycle) wastes
- Prohibit / restrict the use of sensitive areas
- Information to pilots and all concerned
- Noise control
All the mentioned methods are in fact very easy to organize!

As meet / competition organizers it is OUR duty to assure that the environment is taken into account in our events. For every meet someone in the organization should be appointed to assure that the environmental policy is put into practice. The person in charge should be given sufficient rights (there is an analogy to dealing with the media or press).

The environmental codes and policy of an event can be advertised to obtain a positive image on the media. This is essential in order to get the general attitude on our side.

Global

Global impacts are becoming more important and are of great concern around the world. This is an issue that we have to face in the near future.
Global impacts are related to the greenhouse-effect. The major concern is of carbon dioxide. This is directly connected with the use of fossil fuels (almost all energy we use!).

As free-flight pilots, we are on the safe side from the start (wind & thermals = solar power)! This should also be used as a positive argument in the media!
The issue will be the traffic and towing. In the future we may be facing requirements to reduce the emissions (policy of constant development).

CIVL Plenary 2000 Report on environmental matters

Sitges, Spain
Report by Riikka Vilkuna (Finland)

The FAI General Conference accepted an environmental policy statement in 1997. It states that the FAI will publish environmental Codes of Conduct for different air sport disciplines. Codes of Conduct cover e.g. considerate flying, flying site layout and operational procedures, landscaping and habitat and Nature Conservation.

Environmental Commission has written Environmental Codes of Conduct which has two parts: the first part is common to all, the second part specific advice to different air sports. The Air Sport Commissions (ASCs) were asked to review the draft. The hang gliding and paragliding part was reviewed and all who commented the draft before CIVL Plenary 1999 considered it a good document.

As it is now, hang gliding and paragliding part of the Code of Conduct concentrates on producing as little noise as possible, saving energy, choosing the operating areas carefully so that environment is not disturbed. Codes of Conduct encourage environmentally sensitive behaviour.

The FAI Environmental Commission had a meeting January 28th-29th 2000. I’ve been in touch with Chris Nicholas, the President of the Commission, and he summarizes the meeting:
the Codes of Conduct have been reviewed by ASC’s (no changes were requested).
FAI would like all ASCs to ensure that their specific codes of conduct are implemented by its member organisations, each ASC may decide how they want to do this.

The Environmental Commission has been working on a world-wide database to collect information on impact of flying on nature, this information will be available via the FAI web site.
Commission will concentrate on noise measurement methods & standards.
Commission is building contacts to other organisations, such as the World Wildlife Fund.

Questions to hang gliding & paragliding associations:
How many hang gliding/paragliding associations have an environment plan of any kind?
How do associations deal with environmental matters when i.e. competitions are arranged?
Are there any environmental projects going on?

What should/could be done within the CIVL:
We should not get too bureaucratic about this.
We should include environmental issues to CIVL Long Term Plan and Guidelines for Organisers. (It would be difficult to try to demand that NACs take measures, but we can recommend them and question how these things are taken care of when, for example, we evaluate bids. Control would need experts.).
Any environmental studies concerning hang gliding and paragliding should be added to Environmental Commission’s database.
NACs should check how they operate in relation to the Codes of Conduct. I could collect information.