Wilderness Designation

There is growing support for the concept of establishing ‘wild land' in the UK. TDN is hoping to contribute to this by leading the development of pan-religion support for the designation of wild land.

Scotland already leads the way with the designation and protection of tracts of wild land such as the Cairngorms, and benefits from ‘wild land' policy advocated by organisations such as Scottish Natural Heritage, National Trust for Scotland and the John Muir Trust.

In Britain the wild land concept is gaining popularity, demonstrated by the forming of the Wildland Network in 2005 and wild land being incorporated into policy planning and the growing media interest.

Growing Support for Wilderness Designation

There are several recent documents and papers which provide support for the wild land concept. These include;

• Council for National Parks 1997 report "Wild by Design"
In the introduction to this report it was recommended that "A number of experimental schemes on a limited scale should be set up in the national parks, where farming is withdrawn entirely and the natural succession of vegetation is allowed to take its course" Edwards 1991.

In Chapter 5 of this report, a list of Current and Future Opportunities for creating wild areas is identified against each National Park.

• Wilderness Britain Conference 1999-2000
During 1999 and 2000 a number of research funded seminars were run on the topic of "Wilderness Britain Social and Environmental Perspectives on Recreation and Conservation". They were well attended by a wide range of organisations and provide evidence of the growing support for the creation of wild areas.

• Friends of the Lake District , Kirby Lecture by Sir Martin Holdgate 2002
Sir Martin Holgate is a highly respected conservationist and was invited by the
Friends of the Lake District to be the speaker at the annual Kirkby Lecture. In his
lecture, Sir Martin spoke about his hope for the future of the Lake District landscape and he mentioned the Wild Ennerdale Project saying:
"Ennerdale is a wild valley.... That dale head could be allowed to revert to true wilderness"

• Land Use Planning Group (LUPG) is made up of statutory conservation, countryside and environment agencies including Natural England, Countryside Council for Wales, Environment Agency, Joint Nature Conservation Committee and Scottish Natural Heritage. In 2000 a report entitled "New Wildwoods in Britain: The potential for developing new landscape-scale native woodlands" was commissioned by the LUPG. The report was commissioned to explore the potential for creating extensive areas of native woodland which might in some respects eventually form a modern equivalent of the original ‘wildwood'. They

• The UK Government advises, in its Circular 12/96 that National Park Authorities are best placed to identify the nature of the special qualities of their National Parks. It states that ‘particular emphasis should be placed on identifying those qualities associated with their wide open spaces, and the wildness and tranquility which are to be found within them'

• Wildland Network (www.wildland-network.org.uk)
The Wildland Network is a group of people from a range of backgrounds brought
together to give a voice to wild land values in Britain and to promote and explore the environmental and human potential of wild land. The network encompasses a broad spectrum of approaches within an ethos of wilder land management that takes in natural forest regeneration, the creation of large core areas and inter-connecting corridors in both upland and lowland areas, the return of exterminated species, and the rewilding of rivers and coastal areas.

How would Druids designate Wilderness?

We hope first to gather Druid opinions on what wilderness is and how it should be treated. In 2009 TDN will be holding a pan-religious conference to examine religious opinions of wilderness and human land management.

From this we aim to generate enough understanding to develop a consensual religious definition of wilderness and how it should be treated. This will be presented to politicians to influence landscape management. Perhaps a ‘wilderness' classification would enable land managers to justify non intervention, the presence of risk and less intensive or no management to honour the spirit of wild self-willed places.

• What do Druids mean by wilderness?
• What would be the purpose of a designation for wilderness?