Strategic development for Wilderness protection
At the end of last week, the European Wilderness Society organised its team meeting and internal ICT training in Tamsweg, Austria. During the team meeting, our colleagues focused on further developing the Pan European Green corridor network initiative and how this concept can be integrated throughout efforts for more effective Wilderness protection.
With the mission of safeguarding Europe’s most precious last Wilderness areas for future generations, our team defined the following main objectives for 2015:
- increasing the management effectiveness of Wilderness protected areas through our audit system (three audits have already been scheduled in the first half of 2015)
- improving regional development through training and capacity building courses in cooperation with local NGOs and donors
- promoting the ecosystem service values of Wilderness areas with the special focus on non-use values
- discovering land lease opportunities in order to increase the territory of areas designated for Wilderness preservation
In relation this last point, we are still hoping that we will be able to allocate the necessary funding for the long-term lease of Jalovecka valley. “Jalovecka Valley is the last large unfragmented piece of Carpathian Wilderness with almost any visible human intervention. Inaccessibility and missing access road for the last 40 years allowed Mother Nature to do its jobs” says our Wilderness director, Vladivoj Vancura, who is currently drafting a concept paper for potential donors.
Further description of our 2015 targets will soon be available in our 2014 Annual Report, which will outline our aspiration for the period of 2015 and 2020.
