Wilderness Webinar Archive

Webinar: Europe’s Wilderness in Ukraine

This webinar showcases Europe’s last Wilderness in the transcarpathian region of Ukraine.

Webinar: Europe’s Wilderness in Central and Southern Europe

This webinar showcases Europe’s last Wilderness in Central and Southern Europe including among others Peneda Geres in Portugal, Majella in Italy, Hohe Tauern and Kalkalpen in Austria and Podji in Czechia.

Webinar: Europe’s Wilderness around the Baltic

All Wilderness, WILDForests, WILDRivers, WILDIslands and WILDCoasts in the European Wilderness Network are unique and represent the best and wildest places in Europe. They cover a multitude of different habitats, are all governed by natural processes and non-intervention stewardship techniques. These areas are worth a trip to visit to see how nature thrives without us, humans interfering.

The webinar shared and explored the Wilderness in the north around the Baltics, ranging from Germany to the Scandinavian tundra.

The European Wilderness Quality Standard and Audit System

The webinar provided an introduction into the European Wilderness Quality Standard and Audit System, the Quality Standard which is the core of establishing and expanding the European Wilderness Network. The webinar also discussed the 10 principles, the 57 criteria and the indicators. Also the step-wise approach on the development of a wild area to a Wilderness according to the Wilderness Continuum was presented.

History of Wilderness Protection

Wilderness is a place where open ended undefined natural dynamic processes govern, where natural forces predominate. However, in the history of the Western world, humans’ relationship with nature has been largely based on the belief that nature is the property of humankind and therefore the purpose of the natural world is to benefit humans.

Thus, one may ask, what was the starting point of Wilderness protection? The US has a long history of preserving Wilderness. The adoption of the Wilderness Resolution by the European Parliament celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2019. At the same time, the US Wilderness Act was passed in 1964, 56 years ago, during which 54 areas (9.1 million acres / 3.7 million ha) in 13 states were designated as Wilderness. It is therefore important for all of us who want to contribute to the future of Wilderness protection, to understand the past.

In this webinar we’ve heard about the history of Wilderness starting in the Middle Ages to the beginning of industrial logging all the way up to the present from Max A.E. Rossberg, Chairman of the European Wilderness Society.