FOR RELEASE WEDNESDAY 5 MARCH
Report reveals role of communication in shaping future of mountain biking and environmental stewardship
A report, supported by IMBA Europe, as part of their Take Care of Your Trails campaign, explores how mountain bikers’ relationships with their local trail locations shapes their attitudes towards nature protection and restoration. The report underscores the need for key communication shapers to promote relationship-centred communication and storytelling to drive active environmental stewardship.
Mountain biking trends are evolving and technology developing against the backdrop of the climate and nature crises that threaten the health of trails and the environments they exist in. The study emphasises the role of communication in guiding riders from passive respect for nature toward active participation in protecting it. Not least is this shift crucial for safeguarding riders’ local trails faced by growing climate and nature pressures.
Based on a survey of mountain bikers, the report shows that riders often describe their connection to trails as relational and reciprocal. Many view their time on the trails as more than a sport or hobby; it is a deeply immersive relationship with nature that enriches their relationship with the rest of nature and inspires them to protect it. However, despite these meaningful connections, it highlights a gap between riders’ attitudes and dominant communication and stories that mediate their interactions with trails, the land and the riding experience.
Key findings:
The relationship between riders and nature in local trail locations is shaped by experiences: Riding in nature has a fundamental impact on the mountain biking experience. Riders consistently report feeling a deep connection with the land marked by moments with nature and features in the landscape that become part of the ride, often outside of actual riding time. These references can be positive and negative, reflecting varying ecological awareness and understanding. Importantly, riders’ connection to their local trail location is shaped more by their experiences and relationship with the place than by the landscape’s natural characteristics and qualities.
A need for relational messaging rather than transactional: The study suggests that storytelling focus needs to evolve from transactional messaging—focused on narrow framing around minimising environmental impact and benefiting personal wellbeing—to relational messaging that emphasises the symbiosis between riders and nature. While riders express a sense of responsibility for their local trail locations alongside land managers, this responsibility is under-represented in stories, language or messaging around trail access. Alongside tangible means to enable nature restoration at various scales of impact, this refocus can support active partnership in nature’s recovery, fostering a shift from passive concern to active engagement.
Communication needs to build collective stewardship and belonging: A significant issue identified by the report is that current communication practices often reinforce divides and paternalistic hierarchies within riding communities and other interests in the land. For example, top-down codes of conduct and trail etiquette can inadvertently create in-groups and out-groups, and reinforce existing divisions between stakeholders. Similarly, communication around recreation access and land management can portray nature as something to be managed and controlled, rather than something to collaborate with. This reinforces humans as separate from nature, which limits a meaningful sense of belonging and collective stewardship. For mountain biking to further evolve its contribution to environmental care, communication must challenge this divide, promoting an interconnected perspective between riders, the natural world, and other interests in the land.
Building a culture of care through shared responsibility: To protect the future of trails and the land they rely on, the report invites a reframing of communication to nurture a culture of care and shared responsibility. This shift involves more narratives centred away from leisure and new technology towards those focused on collective belonging and care. Concern for the environmental impacts on trail locations exists where first-hand experience and stories show how trail and rider health can be impacted. More stories and practical examples of how riders and communities can make positive contributions to environmental protection, restoration and advocacy are needed. This relies on riders, land managers, local communities and mountain bike media forming strong partnerships based on collective understanding, local knowledge and active participation in environmental restoration.
These shifts in narrative will support mountain biking communities in playing a greater role in protecting trails now, and for future generations.
The report by Rupert Barry was commissioned by IMBA Europe and supported by Specialized Soil Searching and Patagonia as part of IMBA’s Take Care of Your Trails campaign.