Wilderness Britain?
...a three day conference
on society, policy and the environment
26- 28th March 2001, University
of Leeds
Conference Report
The conference was attended
by over 60 delegates representing a wide range of backgrounds and interests,
some from far afield as Nepal, the USA, Estonia and Norway. A varied
and interesting collection of papers and posters were presented which generated
lively and constructive discussion. The conference particularly benefited
from the views and expertise of oversea's professionals. One of the
key events of the conference were the Policy Sessions. Here a policy
panel of 5 selected policy makers presented brief resumes of their organisations'
policy approaches to wild areas and directed discussions about policy directions
in Britain. Over the course of the Monday evening, the policy panel
retired to draw up a list of key policy issues which were then presented
to the other delegates the following morning for further discussion.
These are the basis of a policy statement being drawn up at present.
This will be distributed in the near future. The proceedings from
the conference will be published as journal special issue(s) and as an
edited book.
Abstracts:
A list of abstracts
from papers presented at the conference is now available.
Aims and objectives:
The aims and objectives of this conference echoed
those of the seminar series. Namely, this conference aimed to bring
together a critical mass of academics, professionals and users who share
a common interest in wilderness, and the wilder areas of Britain in particular.
The focus of the conference was on the social and environmental perspectives
of the wilderness ideal within the British Isles, with emphasis on generating
policy recommendations for recreation and conservation. The objectives
of the conference were as follows:
-
Provide a forum for the presentation and discussion
of ideas relating to social, cultural and environmental perspectives on
'Wilderness Britain';
-
Pool a broad knowledge base pertaining to the
role of the 'wild' in recreation and conservation;
-
Seek expert opinions and input from other countries
with a long history of wilderness preservation and management (e.g. USA)
and from those recently adopting wilderness as a designated land use (e.g.
Italy and Finland);
-
Examine the social causes behind the recent upsurge
in popularity of outdoor recreation in Britain and identify the social
and environmental implications for wild land;
-
Foster discourse and collaboration between the
academic community and professional bodies and user organisations on the
subject of wild land management; and
-
To use the conference as a forum to formulate
general policy recommendations and specific recommendations regarding recreation
and landscape conservation.
Invited speakers:
A number of key people were invited to give keynote
presentations at the conference. Presentations made included:
-
Alan Watson, Leopold Institute Research
Institute, Missoula, Montana
-
Larry Hamilton, Chair of Mountains, IUCN
-
John Mackay, Scottish Natural Heritage
-
Eric Freyfogle, University of Illinois
-
Alan Watson-Featherstone, Trees for Life
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