Wilderness
"Wilderness. It is a place, an experience, a tradition, a remembering, and a future. It is an ancient forest homeland, a living refuge for wildlife, a sanctuary for endangered species and biodiversity. Wilderness is the very archive of life. The essence of purity, it serves as a guarantor for fresh water, clean air, and health. Vast and free, wilderness provides a wild place to play, a space for solitude. It offers the chance for renewal in Nature, reconnection with the land, reunion with the spirit."
Ric Careless,
Executive Director, British Columbia Spaces for Nature
The concept of wilderness in Western culture has its roots in Judeo-Christian fundamentalism. Europeans brought this concept with them to North America as they set out to tame the wilderness of the western frontier. It was only after the wave of settlement had reached the Pacific coast that the desire to protect samples of wilderness was borne. Humans now controlled the land and viewed themselves as separate from nature. This view of nature is embodied in the United States Wilderness Act of 1964.
Indigenous peoples, however, whose cultures have evolved within wild lands based on hunting and gathering, are at home in these lands. Their life-styles and very existence have been dependent upon a sustained harvest of resources from the land without altering n ature. Indigenous peoples are at the top of trophic relationships within arctic ecosystems and view themselves as a part of nature. Although conservation of nature in the Arctic is today a common goal of both the indigenous cultures and elements of Western culture, increased understanding of culturally based differences in perceptions of nature is necessary if mutually acceptable conservation efforts are to succeed.
Paradoxically, the Western concept of wilderness often includes homelands of indigenous peoples. The Gwich'in people, Athabascan Indians living close to the northern limit of forests in northwestern Canada and adjacent Alaska, have a saying that "to understand our way you must stop for a moment and feel the rhythm of the land. For we are part of it". Before contact with Western culture the Gwich'in knew of the caribou only in fall and winter, when they were present in their homeland. When the caribou left their wintering grounds in spring on their migration north to the calving grounds, they left the land of the Gwich'in. The calving grounds were in the land of the Inuit, the people who lived at the edge of the sea. The Caribou Cree of the northern c oniferous forests of central Canada have had a similar relation to caribou. They knew that the caribou were in the north and absent from their lands in summer, to return again in fall and winter, but not always. Wintering areas varied from year to year as well as the migration routes followed. They spoke of the caribou as mystical and often unpredictable creatures, even though their culture had evolved largely in relation to caribou, their existence was dependent upon them, and they had in tricate knowledge of the winter ecology of caribou. Nevertheless, they had a saying that "no one knows the way of the winds and the caribou" .
In December of 1989, WILD distributed a four-page questionnaire about wilderness to the 2,000 environmental and native groups, research institutes and government offices on its mailing list. Although the mailing list included groups form every country in the world, the almost 200 responses (10 percent) were weighted heavily in favor of North America and Europe (almost 50 percent of responses).
Sixty-two percent of respondents (primarily from Australia, North America and Europe) confirmed that they use the word wilderness. Almost one-half of the respondents who chose other words (e.g., "nature", "primary or virgin forest", "pristine" area) defined these words using language identical to that given for the word wilderness. Consistent characteristics for all terms were:
  • natural ecological processes intact-89%
  • free-ranging populations of indigenous wildlife-84%
  • indigenous vegetation intact-74%
  • naturally self-sustaining - 71%
Variations in definitions were most pronounced in regards to wilderness being a homeland for traditional and indigenous peoples. Of those who use the word wilderness, 50 percent consider it a native peoples' homeland. Of those who use other terms, only 35 percent consider their term as a people's homeland.
Interestingly, WILD has been cautioned about the use of the word wilderness--that its meaning might imply the lack of human occupance and use. Yet our survey showed that people using the word wilderness had a greater tolerance for human activity, including the presence of roads and industrial use, than those who chose to use other words such as "nature" or "primary forest."
For the purposes of its mapping project, WILD has chosen to define wilderness similarly to our questionnaire respondents: An ecological unit where natural processes are largely undisturbed and which may be used by a community or communities of people in a sustainable way, so long as it still largely maintains its natural character.
WILD is using the terms "natural areas" and "natural ecosystems" interchangeably with the word "wilderness."