WILD

Placing Wilderness in Focus

Below is the introduction to Pan Park’s “As Nature Intended” document, written by Ladislav Miko, Director for Nature, DG Environment, European Commission – former Environment Minister of the Czech Republic.  “As Nature Intended” provides 11 case studies, with best-practice management techniques for wilderness in Europe and is one of many resources available from  Pan Park’s Resource page.

Even though being one of the most densely populated continents, Europe is at the forefront of nature conservation. Recent years have seen an increasing public interest in the protection of our natural heritage, and especially of the precious areas where wilderness in Europe still exists. Accordingly, it is environmental professionals’ and policy-makers’ key responsibility to promote recognition and fulfillment of nature’s needs today, so that wild landscapes and habitats can continue to amaze coming generations in their most natural possible form.

Establishing the Natura 2000 network on the basis of the Bird and Habitat Directives was a major step towards that objective. This unique network of protected areas across Europe undoubtedly serves as a basis for the continuing fight to halt biodiversity loss and act towards the proper protection and possible extension of the last wilderness areas of Europe. The original objective of stopping biodiversity loss by 2010 has not been fulfilled, but with increased efforts the ambitious biodiversity targets set for the post-2010 period can still be attained.

I am also very happy to have seen a number of important events in the past year in the field of wilderness protection. The adoption of the European Parliament’s Report on Wilderness in Europe, the subsequent conference in Prague, organised to take up the challenges set out by that report, or the declaration of the message from Prague, ’Poselství’, listing 24 recommendations on the way forward to the implementation of wilderness protection and restoration – these were all milestones on the path towards the successful preservation of Europe’s wilderness values.

The European Commission is fully supportive of all initiatives intent on biodiversity and wilderness protection. Therefore, I warmly welcome this publication by the PAN Parks Foundation, which provides an excellent collection of best practice examples for non-intervention in areas belonging to the Natura 2000 network. This publication will certainly help the European Commission develop special management guidelines for site managers facing challenges in relation to wilderness management.

Furthermore, I believe this publication will be an invaluable document not only for policy makers but also for site managers, and will contribute to achieving our goal of placing wilderness in the focus of the new European vision for nature conservation. Download the full publication >

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