Sustaining mountain places

Established in 1976, The School of the Environment at The Banff Centre offered seminars, workshops, and conferences on environmental planning as well as the annual Banff Festival of Mountain Films. In 1996, The Centre for Mountain Culture was established to continue the annual Banff Mountain Film Festival and Banff Mountain Book Festival as well as to sponsor research, events, and educational programs on international alpine activities including an annual photography competition.

Today, Mountain Culture at The Banff Centre promotes understanding and appreciation of the world’s mountain places by creating opportunities for people to share — and find inspiration in — mountain experiences, ideas and challenges. Mountain Culture leads a suite of mountain environment and sustainability programs. Activities include the Banff Mountain Book Festival, the Banff Mountain Festivals, Mountain Forum, Mountain Conferences, and Mountain Summits.

Partnerships

Mountain Culture aligns with credible partners who not only share their passion for the environment, but lead the way, such as Patagonia, National Geographic, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, Polartec, Petzl, Alpine Club of Canada, Mountain Equipment Co-op, and One Percent for the Planet.

Stewardship

Mountain Culture provides a platform to share environmental messages. Through films, books, photographs, world tour screenings, conferences, and summits, Mountain Culture acts as a catalyst for discussion and action on sustainability issues. Outstanding examples include:

• With the support of Parks Canada, the five-year Mountain Communities Conference Series brought together hundreds of mountain scientists, policy-makers and community leaders to share and document knowledge about issues common to mountain communities around the world.
• The quantity and quality of water in mountain areas was discussed at the 2003 Banff Mountain Summit “Mountains as Water Towers.” This conference attracted more than 300 scientists and water policy experts to discuss mountain watersheds.
• The Rosenberg International Forum for Water Policy brought together current and former environment ministers and water managers from around the world to discuss upland watersheds at the Centre in 2006.
• With the support of Festivals sponsors, Mountain Culture promoted the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) and raised over $6,500 towards Y2Y’s local sustainability initiatives at their first annual Mountain Mixer fundraiser at the 2006 Banff Mountain Festivals.
• During the 2006 Banff Mountain Festivals Patagonia and Mountain Equipment Co-op brought together approximately 20 people working with trail groups from across Canada and the U.S. Participants shared information and collectively lobbied the U.S. government for special status for wildlife corridors.

Mountain Forum

Mountain Culture is proud to host the North American node of the Mountain Forum. Mountain Forum is a global community of people and organizations who work toward equitable and ecologically sustainable mountain development. Mountain Forum members are based in more than 95 countries worldwide. Membership is free and is open to anyone with an interest in mountain communities, conservation and sustainable development.

Locally, the Bow Valley Mountain Forum helps link people and information through its library of briefs on local environmental initiatives and links to environmental organizations.