Wilderness

As countries go on lockdown, nature goes wild

We are witnessing a global change of our daily lives to a degree that did not happen for decades, for most countries. The large scale and drastic measurements aim to isolate the most vulnerable people, and limit social interaction between others. Yet, as countries go on lockdown, nature is returning at an incredible speed in unexpected places.

Show us examples of how nature rebounds by sending us some photos.

Power of nature

In northern Italy, which was one of the first European regions to go on lockdown, traffic has largely come to a standstill. In cities such as Triest and Venice, transport by waterways has stopped as well. And now, reports show that dolphins have been sighted in the city harbour of Cagliari and in Trieste. Despite that it is not uncommon for dolphins to appear in the harbours of Cagliari, Trieste and even Koper, the number of sightings seem to have increased.

In Venice, one of the top tourist destinations in the world with 30 million visitors on an annual basis, life stands still too. Without any boats or gondolas cruising through its canals, the water in Venice has never been clearer. Reports from the local newspaper, and even the CNN, show how locals are seeing fish returning to Venice canals, too many to count.

Have you witnessed, or read about examples where nature comes back? Let us know!

5 easy steps to share your observation

  1. Find a place where nature is coming
  2. Take some photos yourself
  3. Upload them using the form below
  4. Describe where the photos were taken and what our visitors can see
  5. Share your observation with our daily more than 1000 visitors

Take a look at your photos!

The examples below are just the beginning, and we can expect many more stories to follow in the coming weeks. All of them demonstrating how nature is thriving when people stop interfering.

This is also the basis for the Wilderness principles in Europe, the so-called non-intervention management. Leaving nature up to itself to allow open-ended undefined natural processes. The world of today shows that it is not too late yet, to save the last remaining Wilderness. Yet, it requires people to realise that the old way of living, as we did merely two weeks ago, is not the way forward. We need to respect nature!

We are challenging you to take some photos of how the Corona Virus lockdown lets nature go wild again in the absence of us humans and upload them here. We will then publish these stories on a regular basis a strong evidence that we need to reduce our human foot print to save our biosphere.

Seals return to the Seal Sands

A group of seals returned to the beach called Seal Sands, located in the north east of England near Durham at the river Tees. Photo by Kevin Hubbard

Chamois in the Low Tatras

Frogs in a wild garden

Support Wilderness now

In the coming weeks, European Wilderness Society will regularly highlight the stories for you, on how nature takes over where people left. In the meantime, our organisation continues with its mission to protect Wilderness together with all our Wilderness Advocates.

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