The unavoidable policy- how to enhance wilderness protection in Europe

The unavoidable policy- how to enhance wilderness protection in EuropeSimon Boyle, SolicitorCoordinator UKELA Wild Law GroupLegal Director Argyll Environmental

What is UKELA?•UKELA= United Kingdom Environmental

Law Association•A charity with the aim ‘To make the law

work for a better environment’•Members mainly solicitors, barristers,

environmental consultants, academics, students

• www.ukela.org

What is UKELA?•Comprises of a governing body, Council•Working party groups , e.g. Nature

Conservation Working Party, Climate Change and Energy Working Party

•Special Interest Groups, Young UKELA Special Interest Group and Wild Law Special Interest Group

What is Wild Law?•Wild Law Group started 2005•Principles based largely on work of :•Christopher Stone, Should Trees have

Standing•Thomas Berry, The Great Work• Cormac Cullinan, Wild Law

What is Wild Law?•Currently, legal systems adopt a human-

centred view of the world•Wild law opposes this dominant view-

advocate laws which reflect a balanced system of law and governance for the whole Earth community

•Earth community should have legal status and rights

Wild law in action•US Supreme Court case Sierra Club v

Morton•Dissenting judgement by Justice Douglas• ‘The problem is to make certain that the

inanimate objects, which are the very core of America's beauty, have spokesmen before they are destroyed.’

Wild Law in UKELA

•Wild Law Group has held annual weekends in England 2005-2011 with papers published in journal Environmental Law & Management•Since 2010 have held weekends in Scotland•Loch Ossian (near Ben Nevis) , Broadmeadows (Scottish borders) , Aviemore (Cairngorms)

Wild Law in UKELA

•November 2005 first UKELA Wild Law conference – University of Brighton

UKELA Wild Law Group •Those who attended first Scottish weekend at

Loch Ossian decided to form a group that would look at how law could be improved to provide greater protection to wilderness areas

•Landscape or Wilderness Directive•Wish to work with other organisations with

similar objectives •Expect to work closely with the John Muir

Trust, possibly Scottish Mountaineering Council

Wild Land in the United Kingdom•John Muir Trust Map-

mapping relative ‘wildness’

•Best 10% in blue – nearly all in Scotland

•<33% of best areas in Scotland have statutory landscape protection – majority at risk

Wild Land in Scotland•John Muir Trust Map- mapping wild land•These wild land areas are now under

threat from human development- primarily from onshore windfarms

•2002, 41 per cent of Scotland was unaffected by visual impact from built development

•2009, that figure dropped to 28 per cent

Wild Land in the UK•Progress in the UK on mapping of wild land –

expressed as ‘relative wildness’•Planning policies in place from 2 National Parks

in Scotland to try and protect wildest areas•Small area in Wales is unprotected – small area in

Northern England protected by National Park status

•National policy and planning guidance is weak – requires robust policy linked to new maps

Wilderness in Europe•In Europe less than 1% of European

landmass can be categorised as wilderness•Predominantly in Finland, Sweden, Norway,

Ukraine and Western Russia•Europe’s last remaining primeval forest,

Bialowieza in Poland (was Royal hunting reserve)

European Protection•Habitats Directive•Birds Directive•Natura 2000 Designated Sites•Water Framework Directive•These are all critical but no Directive on

Wilderness for its own right

The urgent need for wilderness protection•The remaining 1% of Europe’s remaining

wilderness is under many threats of economic development including windfarms, hydroelectric dams and tourism

•Wilderness is vital for biodiversity and for man both for recreation and for solitude

Balancing energy needs and wilderness•The UKELA Wild Law Group understands the

vital need to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy

•However this does not mean that renewable energy must be produced at any cost and without recourse to wider environmental concerns

•There should be more focus on reducing energy dependency through efficiency and saving

The urgent need for wilderness protection•Over the centuries many of our greatest

writers, poets and scientists have recognised the vital importance of wilderness:

•Wordsworth- ‘A wilderness is rich with liberty’•Thoreau- ‘In wilderness is the preservation of

the world’•Aldo Leopold – ‘Wilderness is a resource which

can shrink but not grow... the creation of new wilderness in the full sense of the word is impossible’

The urgent need for wilderness protection•President Theodore Roosevelt- ‘Short-

sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things...’

The urgent need for wilderness protection•The UKELA Wild Law Group therefore

fully supports the European Parliament’s Resolution on Wilderness on Europe (OJC67E/1)

Changing attitude to wilderness •Wilderness – means undisturbed habitat

which is essential if we are to halt the current mass extinction of the natural world

•Up to 27,000 species a year may be lost (75 a day)- mainly through loss of habitat

Wilderness protection in USA•United States Wilderness Act 1964• ‘A wilderness, in contrast with those

areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and community of life are untrammelled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.’

Wilderness protection in USA•National Wilderness Preservation System

(NWPS)•Covers 106 million acres (429,000 km²)•Once a wilderness area has been added to

the System, its protection and boundary can only be altered by another act of Congress

Wilderness protection in USA

•Five criteria to meet before land can be designated:•1) the land is under federal ownership and management•2) the area consists of at least five thousand acres of land

Wilderness protection in USA•3) human influence is “substantially

unnoticeable”•4) there are opportunities for solitude and

recreation •5) the area possesses “ecological,

geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value”

Wilderness protection in USA•704 areas now protected under NWPS•2.5% of land mass of the main 48 States•Increases to 5% if Alaska is included•30 March 2009 President Obama signed

Omnibus Public Park Management Act•Additional 2 million acres protected as

Wilderness

EU Development•European Parliament Resolution,

Wilderness in Europe, 3, Feb 2009•‘Restoration of Europe’s last wilderness

areas are vital to halting the loss of biodiversity’

• ‘Calls on the commission to develop an EU wilderness strategy’

• ‘Calls on the Commission and the Member States to develop wilderness areas’

EU Development•May 2009 meeting in Prague • ‘Message from Prague’ Supported

European Parliament •Action Plan for implementation •Supported by European Centre for Nature

Conservation

Conclusion•Some countries, such as USA recognise the value

of wilderness and provide high level of legal protection

•Europe currently does not- however an important start has been made

•The loss of biodiversity is probably the most serious threat facing this planet and every species

• It is of the utmost importance for the EU to bring into effect legislation that will properly protect the last remaining areas of European wilderness