WILDERNESS
WILDERNESS
Wilderness: 1. from the natural point of view an area not controlled by humans, a landscape biologically and ecologically untouched by human activity, 2. from the legal point of view an area protected in order to preserve its “wild” state, in which the presence and limited human activity is not excluded (fire protection, feeding animals, limiting or preventing the migration of certain animal species), 3. in the cultural dimension an important dimension of the human condition, a value to be protected.
From a natural point of view, the wilderness category describes relatively large or very large areas of untouched nature. It is assumed that such an area should cover at least one million hectares (according to estimates, wilderness areas account for approximately 44 per cent of the land surface of the earth) with self-regulatory phenomena, genetic diversity and self-regeneration potential. They often exceed the territory of individual countries (Amazon Forest, taiga, tundra, oceans, etc.), but their welfare is important for the entire human population. They perform many functions essential for life on our planet: (1) slow down climate change (biologically and geographically virgin areas are more resistant to environmental change), (2) protect genetic and biological diversity, in particular of species requiring relatively large living space, (3) improve the quality of various environmental elements (including water and air), (4) contribute to the conservation of the gene pool of wild counterparts of plants and animals used commercially, (5) constitute an area where the habitats of many indigenous human groups living there are protected in a natural way. Wilderness as a quality is particularly prominent in highly developed countries (Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, most of the countries belonging to the European Union). It is no coincidence that environmental legislation is so highly developed there. Polish protected areas and other wild areas do not meet the size criterion (the largest of them, the Biebrza National Park, covers an area of some 59,000 hectares).
In legal terms, the wilderness category is a term used to describe wildernesses under legal protection. Its task is also to indicate the mechanisms of creating areas where nature is preserved in its uncontaminated form. This is particularly important when attempting to protect areas crossing national jurisdictions. For the first time, wilderness as a legal category was introduced in 1964 into the U.S. legal system as the Wilderness Act. In this document the term wilderness is defined as: “an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions”.
[M. G.]
Literature:
Bezencenet, Stevie. Wilderness Dreams. W Wells, Liz (eds.) Shifting Horizons: Woman’s Landscape Photography Now. London – New York: Routledge 2000.
Cosgrove, Denis. Vision and Geography. Seeing, Imagining and Representing the World. London – New York: I.B. Tauris, 2010.
Durczak, Joanna. Rozmowy z ziemią: tradycja przyrodopisarska w literaturze amerykańskiej. Lublin: Wydawnictwo UMCS.
Frydryczak, Beata. Krajobraz: od estetyki the picturesque do doświadczenia topograficznego. Poznań: Wydawnictwo PTPN, 2013.
IUCN: “Wilderness Protected Areas: Management guidelines for IUCN Category 1b protected areas”, edited by Craig Groves. Last modified February 18, 2018. https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/PAG-025.pdf. Access 20.02.2018
Menzies, Charles R. Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Natural Resource Managemen. Omaha: University of Nebraska Press, 2006.
Novak, Barbara. Nature and Culture. American Landscape and Painting 1825-1875. Oxford – New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Schama, Simon. Landscape and Memory. New York: Vintage Books, 1996.
“Wilderness Act”. Last modified February 18, 2018.
http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=legisAct. Access 20.02.2018