The International Outdoor Safety Forum (IOSF) is a group of organisations from around the world that focuses on outdoor safety, specifically, prevention.
Purpose
Foster global collaboration to enable the delivery of effective outdoor recreation safety and prevention work.
Vision
Through international collaboration and sharing of ideas, outdoor recreation participants from around the world will benefit from enhanced prevention strategies and effective prevention interventions, enabling them to actively participate with the skills, knowledge, and competencies required to keep themselves and others free of harm.
Aims & Objectives
- Benefit from a mutual exchange of prevention strategies and interventions.
- Share ideas, experiences or challenges in an open, high-trust environment.
- Utilise the skills and experiences of other members through advice, support or guidance.
- Develop strategies for effective prevention.
- Develop mechanisms for measuring the impact of prevention.
- Develop and share strategies for effective communication and marketing covering a range of target audiences.
The IOSF is facilitated by NZ Mountain Safety Council. For more information or to enquire about joining, please contact us.
The IOSF focuses exclusively on prevention, although member organisations may also be involved with rescue and response activities outside of the IOSF. For these purposes, prevention is defined as any form of purposeful intervention that seeks to eliminate or minimise physical or emotional harm while participating in an outdoor recreation activity. Outdoor recreation activities and participation relevant to the IOSF may include any form of personal outdoor recreation, on land or in water, being undertaken for leisure. This excludes commercial experiences (where safety is managed by a qualified supervisor who is paid to manage the participants' safety), or through a workplace environment. Membership is free and does not commit an organisation to any financial or contractual agreement. Organisations that are involved with prevention work are encouraged to join the IOSF. These organisations will likely be associated with government departments, ministries or organisations, be from the non-profit or non-government organisation (NGO) sector, be a registered charity, incorporated society, volunteer group, or a membership body or association that represents a collection of these. Universities with programmes or research applicable to prevention or outdoor safety are also welcomed. Private businesses or commercial operators, while not excluded from joining, are unlikely to be IOSF members as individuals, but may be represented through a collective body or association. New organisations can join at any time. The process of welcoming a new member to the IOSF simply requires a majority agreement of current members, at that time. Member organisations can end their involvement at any time. Meetings take place 4-6 times a year, 2-3 months apart. All meetings are held online via Microsoft Teams. All efforts are made to find the most convenient time for members to meet. This is usually during the early morning in NZ/Australia, early afternoon western North America, and late evening UK/Europe.
Current Membership
