What do we do with the helibike?
Aragon is one of the few territories that allows this sport in its mountain areas. This activity has been socially rejected in several European countries. In recent years, mountain sports have become one of the most popular activities.
A new way to get to know nature and get in touch with it at a time when most people live at a great distance from the forests. However, among these practices there are also forms of entertainment that generate controversy and direct impact on the territory. This is the case, for example, of helibiking. It is easy to explain what this sport consists of. A helicopter takes several cyclists up to an elevated mountain area, and they are launched along the roads to descend at full speed through these natural landscapes. A sporting activity that, beyond the cyclists’ entertainment, has a direct impact on the environment. Thus, in Aragón, helibiking is concentrated in Punta Suelza, in the town of Bielsa. It was the first place where this activity, which many neighbors feared could spread to other areas, was registered. To date, with the exception of occasional cases such as BenasqueThe descents of these cyclists are concentrated in this locality. They already had, yes, an intense citizen protest, with mobilizations to the very peak of Punta Suelza in order to prevent the repetition of an activity “not at all empathetic to the natural environment”. But, are the Aragonese mountains the only ones that see how cyclists fly through their natural paths? Well, according to Altitude Rides, a company in Spain that is dedicated to this activity and that has been seen in recent years in the Aragonese Pyrenees, yes.
Its website offers routes through the aforementioned Punta Suelza, the Cotiella massif and Sierra Negra. Outside national borders, the situation is similar and the social protest in defense of natural spaces has not ceased to be repeated. In France and Germany, the mountains are protected from this practice, while in Italy citizens are fighting to reduce the number of these bicycles. It is more common in New Zealand, where the sport is more widespread than in the aforementioned European nations. In the heart of the continent, in Switzerland, cycling is giving way to another modality, heliskiing, which combines helicopter climbing with downhill skiing. The impact and distribution of helibike in Aragon reaches the territory in many different ways. In the first place, because the area where it is practiced is inhabited by endangered species, such as the bearded vulture, the ptarmigan or the capercaillie. For this last animal, programs are being carried out for its protection and recovery in the Pyrenees. The arrival of helicopters, especially from June and in the summer months, disturbs the breeding season of these birds and further overcrowds areas of great natural wealth, which are becoming a powerful tourist attraction. Secondly, the soil and flora also suffer, since the roads must be conditioned to avoid irregularities and erode the terrain for the powerful descents that cyclists make. The soils of the Pyrenees, therefore, live in a constant process of regeneration after these intervention tasks on the roads.
Political issue
In recent weeks, the helibike problem in the Aragonese Pyrenees has reached the politics of the community. The opening of a file against the nature protection agent by the Government of Government of Aragon has mobilized part of the opposition. Both Izquierda Unida (United Left) and Chunta Aragonesista (Chunta Aragonesista) expressed their solidarity with the APN, reinforcing their position, and demanded that the autonomous Executive close the file and archive the case. Something that has not happened so far and the lawsuit continues its course. . El sindicato UGT también mostró su rechazo al expediente al agente de la naturaleza y alertó de la creación de «un precedente» contra este cuerpo, al que se le investiga por, según la organización sindical, «haber hecho su trabajo». IU has already registered several questions regarding the form of action, the development of a procedure and the treatment of this sport to the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Manuel Blasco, for the next plenary session in the Cortes de Aragon.
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