Good Practice

The Toolkit to Responsible and Sustainable Outdoor Challenge Events is provided to promote best practice in organising outdoor challenge events and to encourage the responsible and sustainable use of the Northern Ireland countryside.

Many popular event venues are subject to heavy use on a regular basis. By following these guidelines, you will help preserve the special nature of the environment we enjoy and rely on.

A well planned and managed event will comply with legal requirements, avoid or minimise impact on the landscape heritage features, plants and wildlife, and have no adverse effects on other established recreational activities or other uses such as farming or forestry.

Any event that is run following the good practice guidelines within the toolkit can claim to being run under the principles of Leave No Trace and assure participants that events are planned in such a way as to minimise the environmental impact.

Leave No Trace principles should be incorporated at each stage of your event.

How to use the Toolkit

The Toolkit to Responsible and Sustainable Outdoor Challenge Events is simple and straight forward to use. It follows three key stages to assist you in planning a responsible and sustainable outdoor challenge event.

STAGE 1 - Research & Planning

Stage One explores why, what, who, where, when and what if. It gathers the valuable foundation information without which there would be no point in holding your event. One of the key elements of this stage is Consultation - a valuable tool to ensure any potential issues can be realised through discussion with land managers. This is also a great way to gain local knowledge and advice.

Stage 3 - Restoration and Review

Whilst some form of restorative work is always inevitable during and following your event, the toolkit should ensure it is kept to a minimum. This final stage will inform you on post-event consultation with those involved in the event organisation as well as how you can review and obtain feedback on your event and share good practice amongst other event organisers.

Stage 2 - Development

The Development stage uncovers the detail of your event management plan by outlining how you will manage elements of route choice and design, infrastructure, safety and insurance, giveback and publicity and communication, as well as developing checklists.

Toolkit Links

Click on the links below to find further information on each stage of the toolkit. In addition, there are several Case Studies to help show elements of the toolkit in practice.

Stage 1 - Research & Planning

Responsible & Sustainable

Sustainability & Environmental Statement

Consultation & Agreement

First Points of Contact

Stage 2 - Development

Route Choice & Design

Infrastructure

When is the best time?

Carrying out a Risk Review

Incident Report Form Template

Checklists

This project is funded by Sport Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and is supported by Mourne Heritage Trust, Leave No Trace, National Trust, Ring of Gullion Landscape Partnership Scheme, Strangford Lough and Lecale Partnership and Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust.