Atacama Rally begins its path to substainability

Pablo Quintanilla © DR

After reaching an agreement with the Sustainability commission of the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM), the Atacama Rally 2019 will become the first Cross Country Rally in the World to be part of the KISS programme.

 

The organisers of the Atacama Rally are honoured to become the first Cross Country Rally in the World to be part of the sustainability programme of the International Motorcycling Federation – FIM.

The programme known internationally as « KiSS » (Keep it Shiny & Sustainable) will be integrated in the activities of the third round of the 2019 FIM Cross Country World Championship to be held from 1st to 7th September in the Atacama Region, Chile.

Under this agreement, the first edition of the « KiSS Atacama » will be merged with the programme « I look after the desert » of Atacama Rally that has been developed over the last three years. Its main objective is to clean the desert of the waste that human beings leave and generate awareness and education in the community.
For Gerardo Fontaine, the General Director of the Atacama Rally, the incorporation of the FIM KiSS programme is an important step in the evolution of Cross Country Rally and allows through a sports tourism event the opportunity to actively work for the benefit of conservation and sustainability in the places where these events take place. « Being part of the KiSS programme is an ambition that we had as organisers for many years. We believe that World sporting events and especially Cross Country Rally must be an active part of this campaign. For us, we are proud to be the first World Rally to be part of this programme and over the coming years we want to strengthen this programme for the benefit of sustainability and global conservation « .

Bottles, cartons, plastics, washing machines, televisions, among many other things are those that human beings dispose of without conscience in the desert. These are scattered for years and the wind is responsible for propagating them to the remotest places of the Atacama Desert. Under the KiSS programme, Atacama Rally will work to eliminate more than three tons of refuge this year and will initiate an education programme in the community to stop the increase of unwanted refuge. Together we will work on the generation of awareness and care that the desert deserves.

An important partner to help develop KiSS Atacama is the Motorcycling Federation of Chile – FMC, who together with the organisers of the Atacama Rally will carry out this ambitious programme for the sustainability and conservation of the Atacama Desert. « The real problem of refuge in the desert as in many other places in our country, is that there are people willing to continue throwing waste and creating illegal dumps. This is especially serious and visible in the desert and the important thing about this programme is that it attacks the root of the problem by delivering, in addition to the commitment of refuge removal, education to the people so that they stop continuing to damage our environment.  » José Tomás D

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