DIRTT Project

DIRTT 2.0

DEVELOPING A EUROPEAN WIDE MTB TRAIL BUILDER CERTIFICATION FRAMEWORK

Mountain biking (MTB) activities enjoy growing attention and more participants are taking up the activity. Thus, the need for trails is growing, and local initiatives are increasingly present. In Norway an estimated 50 M€ is invested in trails and bike parks to date (source: Innovation Norway). Many of the actors in the field lacks necessary competence for constructing and building trails in a sustainable manor, the result may end in non-reversible damage to the nature. The DIRTT 2.0 project is intended to mitigate this risk through a series of actions building on the first DIRTT project aimed at tackling the trail builder’s skills gap, especially in building sustainable and inclusive MTB trails. The project will develop systems for promoting competencies needed to make the mountain biking sector capable to plan and build facilities in a sustainable manner that protects the environment in vulnerable areas of our common nature.

A central finding in the first DIRTT project is a high degree of awareness in the sector towards building sustainable recreational infrastructure, which include people with fever opportunities in the field of sports and activity such as people with disabilities. This is an aspect that DIRTT 2.0 aims to reinforce by integrating learning outcomes regarding this in the European competence framework for mountain bike trail building and collecting examples of best practice to use in the trail builder education.