During the future of Wild Europe conference organised in the framework of the Environmental Humanities for a Concerned Europe project in University of Leeds, I presented my paper which summarised the road leading to the European Parliament's Resolution on Wilderness the achievements between 2009 and 2016, and highlighted 11 key recommendations for the future. Enjoy reading it and I hope my recommendations will be of use to further strengthen European wilderness policy

1. The future of wild in Europe
in the light of its last decade
policy development
Zoltan Kun, Wilderness Advocate
Senior Project Manager, VTK Innosystem Ltd
kun.zoltan@innosystem.hu

2. Reflections on #EurWild Day 1
 Clarify who I am to understand why I am here:
 THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WILDERNESS AND RESTORING WILDERNESS
ATTRIBUTES a.k.a. REWILDING
 Restoration is a PROCESS, which MIGHT end up with wilderness and often requires
ACTIVE management
 Wilderness is a state of nature developing on its own and requires stewardship
 Not a researcher, but an advocate often approaching the question from ethical
viewpoint
 How I see the the question of why we need wilderness
 Nature-centric approach (Socialist) vs Human-centric approach (Conservative)
 I enjoy the interdisciplinary character of the conference

3. Reflections on #EurWild Day 1
 PHOTO TIME
 EDUCATION – rewild the hearts and minds

4. The research target and methodology
 Develop recommendations for future key activities to strengthen wilderness
STEWARDSHIP in Europe based on what has already been achieved
 Analysing information from 4 sources:
 Literature review
 Comparing the calls of the European Parliament and the EC Agenda for Wilderness
 Personal interviews with 10 key people
 Online questionnaire to get information fon Member State level

5. The road to Strasbourg
 The European Parliament adopted a Resolution on Wilderness on 3rd of
February 2009 with an overwhelming 538 YES vote
 From Abisko to Strasbourg
 How many of you are familiar with IUCN PA management categories
 IUCN Protected Area Management Categories – separate wilderness category, but
national park category holds a strong link to wilderness as well
 Within the EU the 2 nature directives have a strong influence on the
management practice of nationally designated areas
 Call of NGOs on wilderness: 2007 followed by 2008 (Europarc conference)
 VIP trip to Majella National Park

6. The EP Resolution on Wilderness and
The EC Agenda on Wilderness & Wildlands
 Calls addressed to the European Commission and to the Member States
 Definition
 Mapping
 Developing wilderness areas
 Promotion
 Better protection
 Linking wilderness to Natura 2000 areas and climate change
 EC Presidency Conference in Prague in May 2009 (200+ participants)
 No appetite for a new directive
 A few additions: neighboring countries, ecosystem services, social benefits and
YOUTH

7. The definition of wilderness
 Resonates the IUCN definition
 Living definition
 „A wilderness is an area governed by natural processes. It is composed of
native habitats and species, and large enough for the effective ecological
functioning of natural processes. It is unmodified or only slightly modified
and without intrusive or extractive human activity, settlements,
infrastructure or visual disturbance.”

8. Enhancing protection through
exchanging information and knowledge
 EC Presidency conferences
 Restoring the Wild Heart of Europe in Brussels in 2010
 Workshop on social benefits in the EP, Brussels, in 2012
 Restoration agenda on the British Isles in Westport, IE, 2013
 The annual events of European Wilderness Days by PAN Parks Foundation
 Wild10 in Salamanca in 2013 with several resolutions focused on Europe’s
wilderness
 Wilderness Academy Days by the European Wilderness Society

9. Wilderness guideline for Natura 2000
sites
 EC service contract led by Alterra
 The most important benefit of the guidance
document was that it brought examples of a
wide range of habitats types, which might be
managed according to wilderness principles.
 Follow-up would be needed: primary and
secondary habitats 0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0 55.6
52.0
37.3
33.3 33.3
28.6 28.6
23.8 23.1

10. European Wilderness Register
 EC service contract led by Alterra with the
contribution of University of Leeds and PAN
Parks Foundation
 Compilation of a register using existing
databases, such as the EEA and WDPA, and
 Completion of mapping wilderness and wild
areas in Europe, involving the use of the
European wilderness definition

11. What the MSs have done (18 responses)
Call to action Progress made No progress
to develop wilderness areas with stressing the need for 1, the provision of special
funding for reducing fragmentation, 2, careful management of re-wilding areas, 3,
development of compensation mechanisms and programmes, 4, raising awareness.
77.8% 22,2%
to co-operate with local non-governmental organisations, stakeholders and the local
population to promote the value of wilderness.
55.6% 44,4%
to exchange their experiences of best practices and lessons learned about
wilderness areas by bringing together key European experts  CONFERENCES
66,7% 33,3%
to minimise the impact of tourism 33,3% 66,7%
to devote special attention to the effectiveness of protecting wilderness 44,4% 55,6%
to protect wilderness areas by implementing the Birds and Habitats Directives, the
Water Framework Directive and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive in a more
effective and more consistent way
66,7% 33,3%
to work together to develop a robust legislative framework on invasive alien species 66,7% 33,3%
to set wilderness conservation as a priority in their strategy to address climate
change
22,2% 77,8%

12. Key Recommendations 1 – clarity on the
definition
 Keep the current European definition of wilderness and wild areas as a
European wide definition! The difference between wilderness, wild areas and
rewilding as a process must be clear in any communication.
 Collect evidences of the best practice use of the definition and also
arguments for change after 2020.

13. Key Recommendations 2 – continental
level
 A special strategy must be put in place to lobby at the Council of Europe for a
European Wilderness Convention. This strategy must take the Resolution 17 of
Wild10 into account.
 The ecological scope of the European Wilderness Convention must take into
account the wilderness continuum in order to provide opportunities for
protected areas to increase their wilderness character.

14. Key Recommendations 3 – EU level
 The wilderness guidance document must be further developed in order to
enlarge the database of best practice examples and investigate the difference
of opportunities for wilderness in primary and secondary habitat types
 The wilderness register must be further developed and integrated into the
EEA datasets in order to create a database which will be regularly updated
and will be searchable.
 The opportunity of MEPs asking questions from the EC in relation to the
implementation of the Parliamentary resolution must be utilised in order the
EC feeling the importance to prioritise wilderness protection.
 A European research agenda should be developed with special focus on at
least the following 3 subjects: linking wilderness areas to climate change,
presenting the socio-economic benefits of wilderness areas, defining the
major threats for wilderness in Europe.

15. Key Recommendations 4 – MSs level
 Develop a mechanism or a platform to regularly share best practice examples
of wilderness stewardship across various habitat types. These best practices
should preferably cover as many priority habitats as possible.
 In cooperation with the civil society sector an early warning system must be
set up, which will help to identify threats to wilderness. Such as a system will
help also to increase public awareness on the existence of wilderness and wild
areas across Europe.

16. Key Recommendations 5 – Pilot project
 Develop a concept of a wilderness pilot project and lobby at MEPs to adopt the
idea in order to secure the funding. The project could input into the process of
developing the post 2020 EU biodiversity strategy with the objective of
strengthening the relevance of wilderness in halting the loss of biodiversity in
Europe.
 Providing an opportunity of exchange of knowledge and best practices through organising
a series of events
 Implementing demonstration projects along the following 4 main topics: benefits of
wilderness beyond biodiversity (socio-economic aspects), climate change and wilderness,
effective stewardship of wilderness sites, wildlife with special focus on large carnivores
 Coordinating a science for wilderness in order to provide evidences for strengthening
wilderness protection in Europe
 Disseminating knowledge and information about wilderness in order to increase public
awareness.

17. Concluding remarks
 Although a special wilderness guidance document was published in 2013 and a
wilderness register was developed in 2014, these do not in themselves provide
any improved legal protection for wilderness areas.
 N2000 is based primarily on experiences of managing secondary ecosystems,
rather than safeguarding large landscapes that have many elements of
primary ecosystems and natural processes.
 This paper hopefully trigger further actions to strengthen wilderness
protection in Europe based on its 11 key recommendations.
 Pan-European Green Corridor network (Inspired by the Yellowstone to Yukon
initiative)