Our objectives for 2017 and a short review of 2016

A very eventful and successful year is coming to an end. 2016 was for the European Wilderness Society a year in which we:

• attended more than 30 workshops all over Europe,
• founded the Carpathian Sustainable Tourism Center Uzhhorod to support the 7 parties of the Carpathian Convention,
• started our large Let’s get wild school project,
• finalised our first Erasmus+ project,
• were invited in a winning bid for an Interreg project,
• hired two news Wilderness experts in the Ukraine,
• increased our media reach to more than 90 000 visitors to our Website, Facebook and Twitter accounts,
• emailed more than 30 Newsletters to our more than 4 000 local Wilderness advocates,
• posted almost 200 news items about Wilderness and old growth forests,
• published a hugely successful Special Journal about Deforestation in Romania,
• finished the European Wilderness Quality Standard Audits for eight new Wilderness,
• invited National Park Directors to join our Wilderness Exchange programme,
• broke the symbolic barrier of 300 000 ha of audited Wilderness in Europe in the European Wilderness Network complying with a common European Wilderness Quality Definition, and most importantly,
• celebrated Gudrun´s new Book on Wolves published for the first time in English and
• made hundreds of new friends who share a common interest: Wilderness

The New Year will begin with just as much fervour as the old ones ends.

• In January we will assist our Partner EcoPlay in the Ukraine in an Climate Change Education and Tourist Trail project financed by the Australian Embassy to the Ukraine.
• Also in January we will mail the Deforestation report to our 1000+ friends supporting us.
• In addition, we will publish the Quick-Audit reports for:
  • Königsbrücker Heide Wilderness
  • Gorgany Wilderness
  • Uholka Wilderness
  • Homul Wilderness
  • European Wilderness Quality Standard.
• In addition in February we will mail the detailed Wilderness Audit Report from NP Kalkalpen to our 1000+ Supporters to give them an idea of what the European Wilderness Quality Standard and Audit Report entails.
• We will also publish our Annual Report 2016 and the next issue of our European Wilderness Journal.
• In March we will start with our Areas of Inspiration in cooperation with Machaon Foundation.
• In April we will visit several new EWQA Candidates who want to be audited to join the European Wilderness Network.
• In May we will hold our European Wilderness Academy Days in the High Tatras.
• In June our new project manager for Central and Eastern Europe will join our team.
• In June and July we will undertake several EWQA Audits in southern Europe and Ukraine.
• In the fall we will continue with our Wilderness Exchange Programme with a trip to the UNESCO World Heritage Beech Forest of the Ukraine
• Shortly before Christmas our new series of Wilderness Publications will be published and made available to all our Wilderness advocates..
• and last but not least we will submit in 2017 our pledge for a European Wilderness Act.
• and during the whole year we will attend several conferences and workshops to keep us busy 🙂

Let’s get wild in 2017!