Wilderness is a word that raises various connotations all of over the world. While some people from the nature conservation arena consider the concept of protecting wilderness an obsolete term, the concept of Wilderness has gained considerable momentum in Europe during recent years. However the different rewilding initiatives across Europe also use – often misuse – the term wilderness.
During the Future of Wild in Europe conference, I presented a concept of improving the policy of Wilderness protection, through better understanding of the development of Wilderness policy in Europe during the past decade. A clear political milestone was the adoption of the European Parliament Resolution on Wilderness in Europe on the 3rd of February 2009, which called on the European Commission and the Member States to take several concrete actions including the followings: