Environmental Referees Emerge to Enforce Sustainability in Outdoor Sports
Environmental referees like Vicente Infante are increasingly essential in the Canary Islands, where they audit mountain sporting events to ensure strict adherence to sustainability standards and minimize ecological impact.
As outdoor sporting events become more professional, a new role has emerged to protect the environment: the environmental referee. In the Canary Islands, Vicente Infante is leading this field, acting as an auditor to ensure mountain competitions follow strict sustainability rules.
Working with the Spanish Federation for Mountain and Climbing Sports, these officials help organizers earn a "green seal," which certifies that an event has minimized its ecological impact. This process is thorough and spans the entire event cycle—from the initial planning stages, which begin at least a month in advance, to the post-race cleanup, where officials confirm the environment has been left in its original state or better.
Infante’s responsibilities include managing waste, ensuring signage uses biodegradable materials, and offsetting the carbon footprint caused by participant travel. While these referees cannot cancel events—a power reserved for safety-related issues, such as the recent weather-driven cancellation of the Tenerife Bluetrail—they produce detailed technical reports. These reports are submitted to organizations like Europarc, which decide whether to grant environmental certifications based on the event's adherence to sustainability standards.
This work is increasingly important due to complex regulations, such as the Master Plan for Teide National Park, which aims to prevent soil erosion and overcrowding caused by the rise of social media-driven tourism. Infante notes that while activities like hiking and trail running have a relatively small footprint when done correctly, other activities like mountain biking or the use of motorized vehicles require much stricter oversight due to their potential to damage the terrain and disrupt the natural soundscape.
Ultimately, the environmental referee serves to balance sports with conservation. By enforcing rules—such as banning metal-tipped poles or littering, which can lead to disqualification—these specialists promote environmental education. As nature tourism continues to grow, their role is becoming essential to ensuring that we can enjoy our natural heritage without compromising its future.