Article for: biosferis  
#07 October 2026
The Trek to Wilderness

The Trek to Wilderness…

The meaning of the word wilderness differs around the world. Wilderness is often a generic term understood outside the environmental community simply as “nature,” and sometimes in a negative manner, as an abandoned area. To some it means a place that expresses identity, shows responsibility to future generations and is a place of spiritual inspiration; a place that is whole and is protected so that it remains whole. There is also increasing acceptance of the term “wilderness area,” to mean those areas legislated or zoned for protection in their natural condition but often accommodating a spectrum of human activity from purely recreational to minimal, sustainable traditional uses. This can be referred to as three dimensions of wilderness: the idea, a wild natural area, official protected area. (Fig 1)

Nelson (1998) cited some thirty different reasons for wilderness conservation, including intrinsic value; for dependent indigenous cultures whose livelihood and cultural identity are inextricably linked to wildlands; for biodiversity protection, national identity, and ecotourism; and many more. Protecting the remaining wilderness is also regarded as a major component of “nature-based solutions” to simultaneously address both climate change and species extinction,

For our purposes, let’s focus primarily on the official international definition and management guidelines established by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).   The World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) is one of the expert commissions within the IUCN, and it coordinates many global experts and organizations concerned with maintaining the quality and standards of different categories of natural areas. To know the current and growing influence of wilderness protection, a little history is interesting and helpful.

Some History

Wilderness as an official type of protected area distinct from national parks, reserves, and others, was first designated in the United States. A process begun in 1934 that led eventually to the US Wilderness Act of 1964 (U.S. Public Law 88-577 1964), in which wilderness was described as "in contrast with those areas where man and his works dominate the landscape, [wilderness] is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Those who framed the Wilderness Act (TWA) thought they would be fortunate to designate a few hundred thousand hectares, but their work started a movement across the USA that led to the National Wilderness Preservation System, which today manages over 800 areas covering some 45 million hectares!

Over the decades following TWA, numerous other countries followed this example. The definitions in diverse countries and locales are all essentially similar, and address (with small variations) criteria such as absence of significant human development, no major natural resource extraction, no motorized access, high value and important biodiversity, and more. The size or extent of such areas of land and (occasionally) water is often addressed, but ultimately size is less important than these other characteristics.

Wilderness is distinct from parks and reserves in that it is purposefully a natural resource comprising both biological/physical and social/spiritual aspects. Properly managed, protected, and functioning, wilderness brings to humankind many practical and irreplaceable values relating to both sustainable development (through the invaluable ecological services wilderness produces), and important but less-material cultural and spiritual values.  Wilderness also provides home and protection for many Indigenous Peoples whose cultures are often “wilderness-dependent.”, ie, if the areas in which they live and  their cultures developed are destroyed, their cultures will also most often be lost.

Wilderness within the IUCN

It is important to note that wilderness was not always recognized as a protected area management category by the IUCN. With frequent prompting from the World Wilderness Congress (Fig 2), and following a resolution adopted at the 3rd World Wilderness Congress (WWC) (Scotland,1983), a recommendation was passed at the IUCN General Assembly meeting in Madrid (1984) requesting that a specific category - wilderness area - be added to the IUCN protected area management category list. This request assumed that formal international recognition of wilderness as a protected area category would lend important credibility to wilderness protection around the world. Wilderness was included as a Category I protected area when the revised IUCN management categories were finally approved in 1992.  The new Guidelines for Protected Areas management categories has six categories in which Category 1 includes two types of protected areas: strict nature reserves, largely for science purposes only (Category 1a) and wilderness areas (Category 1b).

IUCN protected area management Category 1b (wilderness) areas are generally large-scale sites in which ecological processes can function naturally, having minimal human disturbance. These sites are defined as ‘Protected areas that are usually large, unmodified or slightly modified areas, retaining their natural character and influence, without permanent or significant human habitation, which are protected and managed so as to preserve their natural condition’ (Dudley, 2013, p. 14).

To reinforce wilderness in theIUCN’s Guidelines for Protected Areas, in 2002 a temporary Wilderness Task Force (WTF – Wilderness Task Force) was officially established within the WCPA. This Task Force was quickly elevated to a permanent Specialist Group (WSG) within WCPA, founded by Vance Martin of the WILD Foundation, thus creating a permanent institutional voice for wilderness within the WCPA and the global environmental institution framework.  The WSG initially led a series of workshops at the World Parks Congress in Durban, 2003; created a web portal for global wilderness professionals connected to IUCN; successfully maintained the integrity of the wilderness 1b category during the 2007–2008 process of revising the Guidelines for Protected Area Management Categories; and in 2016 produced management criteria for the wilderness category. Wilderness Protected Areas: Guidelines for Management of IUCN Category 1b Wilderness (Casson et al. 2016) was the first and continues to be the only global guidelines for understanding and managing formally designated wilderness areas.

The Guidelines

The goal of the two Guidelines mentioned above is to provide guidance to wilderness planners, managers, and other decision makers around the world. The guidelines address numerous important topics, including

• background on defining wilderness protected areas in an international context,

• the history of this protected area category.

• critiques of the wilderness concept,

• key principles for wilderness protected area management,

• governance systems applicable to wilderness protected areas,

• the importance of harmonizing governance type with on-the-ground realities to ensure effective conservation,

The primary management objective of wilderness protected areas (Category 1b) is to protect the ecological processes and. biodiversity of large-scale, intact areas with minimal human disturbance (Dudley 2013, p. 14). The guidelines recognize four other compatible objectives:

• Recreation and access

• Traditional ways of life

• Cultural and spiritual uses

• Education and science

The Guidelines address Management Principles; Governance and Authority; Management Tools and Issues; and Evaluating Effectiveness. In addition, and important to note, this publication -- produced by 40 volunteer experts from around the world – seeks to put to rest some of the perennial arguments used by opponents of wilderness. The first concerns the presence of humans, and the Guidelines emphasize that wilderness areas do not exclude humans…they exclude certain human uses. Second is the argument that Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) sometimes reject the wilderness concept. In response, the Guidelines emphasize that wilderness areas recognize, promote and insist upon the inclusion of IPLC as full partners (not just stakeholders) in wilderness designation and management as codified under the UN Declaration of the Rights of indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). In addition, there are many examples around the world of IPLC’s supporting the wilderness concept, not the least of which is by Canada’s First Nations, at least two of those areas they protect are designated Category 1b.

Further, very early in the Guidelines the authors offer two specific critiques often used by opponents to wilderness, of which advocates and managers need to be aware of. Importantly, they provide information for how to respond when faced with them. First is that IPLC resist using the term wilderness because of the divide between their nature-based cultures and those of westernized, time-driven cultures, and because wilderness drives out indigenous inhabitants. The Guidelines demonstrate that IPLC are not a holistic block, and there are clear examples in all regions of the world of use of the wilderness concept by IPLC. Second are the arguments against wilderness presented by what are called the “neo-greens,” who reject wilderness as post-modern and de-constructionist because “there really is no such thing as wilderness.”  This argument insists that wilderness ignores local people and that human impacts such as climate change and pollution are globally pervasive and therefore there are no ‘pristine’ areas left on earth. Such an argument is unsupported by conservation science, and one also has simply to note that the word ‘pristine’ is absent from virtually all formal definitions of wilderness, especially that of the IUCN.

Global Progress

Following the creation of wilderness as a formally recognized category of protected area, global progress accelerated. In addition to the work within the IUCN, working with a small group of talented colleagues, we created objectives and products to build on the definition and thus strengthen the concept globally. The WILD Foundation continued to convene the WWC (most recently in South Dakota, USA, 2024, hosted by the Lakota People); created (and still publishes) the International Journal of Wilderness; and also published the standard textbook, Wilderness Management (now in its 4th edition).

The good news is that the use of wilderness as a protected area category is gaining ground all over the world.  As of 2016, 48 countries established wilderness areas as Category 1b through legislative designation (IUCN and UNEP-WCMC 2016). Twenty-two other countries have wilderness areas established through administrative designation or wilderness zones within other protected areas. The 2016 guidelines provide instruction on how best to manage, govern, and protect these 2,992 marine and terrestrial wilderness areas (IUCN and UNEP-WCMC 2016). Many more areas are protected with the same wilderness objectives as Category 1b but are not yet designated. The guidelines are applicable to these areas and to areas wilderness decision makers are looking to restore and rewild to the status of wilderness.

The work to build a movement that could assure wilderness recognition, protection and management has been a long story, and it continues. We are heartened by the dramatic and increasing efforts in the protection and official designation of wilderness areas around the globe. One milestone of this was the European Parliament Resolution on Wilderness in Europe (European Parliament 2009). This sweeping resolution has many directives and calls for action by Member States, including: definition and mapping; enhanced protection; creation of wilderness zones within the European Union’s Natura 2000 system of protected areas (the largest such network in the world); and sharing of best practices. It also led to significantly enhanced, NGO-driven initiatives.

Romania has a very special destiny in this scenario. The “wild heart” of Europe, the Carpathian Mountains and the Danube Delta, are largely contained within Romania.

Adopting the Wilderness Area 1b Protected Area category could bring an important contribution to conserving the world class natural heritage of Romania.

Vance G Martin

President Emeritus, Wilderness Foundation Global

Founder/Co-Chair, Wilderness Specialist Group, WCPA/IUCN

Founder, President (1983-2023), The WILD Foundation

References

Casson, S.A., Martin V.G., Watson A, et al. 2016. Wilderness Protected Areas: Management guidelines for IUCN Category 1b protected areas. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. x + 92pp.

Dudley, N. (ed.). 2013. Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

IUCN and UNEP-WCMC. 2016. The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). available from http://.protectedplanet.net

Nelson, M.P. 1998. An amalgamation of wilderness preservation arguments. In: Callicott, J. B.; Nelson, M. P. The Great New Wilderness Debate. Athens: University of Georgia Press, pp. 154–200.

Rosu, A. 2014 Property Restitution in Romania. Global Economic Observer. Bucharest Vol. 2, Iss. 2,  (2014): 37-41.

U.S. Public Law 88–577. The Wilderness Act of September 3, 1964. 78 Stat. 890.

For this article, the author drew significantly from Wilderness Protected Areas: Management guidelines for IUCN category protected areas, and Wilderness Management (chapter 3, International Perspectives, Martin and Watson)