Relatively little wilderness remains in densely settled Europe, though efforts are now underway to prevent its total disappearance
By Andreas Beckmann
In Europe, with its long history of human settlement, the southern Carpathians present an anomaly. The area stretching from Djerdap National Park in northern Serbia across the Danube gorge at the Iron Gates, up to the Retezat, Romania's flagship national park, and across the Fagaras mountains almost to the bend that the Carpathian Mountains make at Brasov is surprisingly well preserved, almost untouched in comparison with most other parts of the "old" continent.
The southern Carpathians represent one of Europe's very few remaining great wilderness areas. The area totals over 1 million hectares and includes the last intact forest landscape in continental Europe. It is home to abundant wildlife, including brown bears, lynx, wolves and even chamoix.
European wilderness
Europe is one of the world's most intensely settled areas, with land use patterns that have shaped and transformed virtually all parts of the continent. Little wonder then that very few areas have been left relatively untouched, and that the largest of them are found in those parts of the continent that have seen least development.
'Wilderness' refers to relatively untouched natural areas that have not been significantly modified by human activity — core areas for nature on land or at sea where nature and wildlife thrive.
Just as wilderness is becoming increasingly rare, its importance is growing in recognition and appreciation. Wilderness provides a wealth of benefits and services for nature and humans, from biodiversity to carbon sequestration. Recent research has underlined the importance of wilderness areas in regulating global climate by serving as significant 'sinks' for carbon. Such areas also hold a key to holding onto much of our planet's biological diversity, e.g. brown bears, wolves and other wide-ranging species.
In Europe, according the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), wilderness protected areas cover between 1.7 percent and 4 percent of the continent, but this figure is almost certainly too high.
Smaller wild areas are scattered across the continent, from the Swiss National Park to Fulufjallet National Park in Sweden. But large and truly wild or wilderness areas have become very rare in Europe, limited to the Svalbard area of northern Scandinavia, mountain areas of Southern Europe and forest areas in Central and Eastern Europe, including the southern Carpathians area.
Threats
Many of these areas, including the southern Carpathians, face significant threats particularly from infrastructure development, including roads, residential and tourist facilities.
Development of ski areas poses a threat to a number of areas throughout the region, with well over 100 ski resorts planned or under development. Most of the areas are being built at below 1,500 meters above sea level, which in the Alps is considered the minimum altitude needed to secure snow conditions in the face of global warming.
The threat of ski developments is not limited to the newest EU member states. In Austria, the planned Piz Val Gronda ski area threatens one of the last wilderness areas in the Alps.
Of course, other natural areas across the continent face similar challenges, and addressing them has been the focus of much of the conservation legislation at international, EU and national levels in past years, from the international Convention on Biological Diversity to the EU's Habitats and Birds Directives and various kinds of national-level protection.
Under the Convention on Biological Diversity — an international treaty of 191 states to protect the diversity of nature which all EU countries have ratified — governments committed in 2004 to protect any large, intact natural areas by 2006. To date, few governments in Europe have met this obligation, but significant progress has been made in stretching a safety net for nature across the continent. The EU's Natura 2000 network of specially protected sites now covers some 17 percent of EU territory, including many of the continent's remaining wilderness areas. Many of the areas also enjoy national and, in some cases, even international protection status.
But when it comes to wilderness, the EU's safety net for nature can be threadbare in places. By focusing on preservation targets of particular European importance, EU-protected habitats and species do not always fully cover the large-scale natural processes that distinguish wilderness areas. For example, impact assessments undertaken for Natura 2000 areas might conclude that a new road will not affect a specific object of conservation interest, while at the same time these activities may negatively impact the area's overall wilderness quality.
In practice, the overlap between protection categories and wilderness areas is significant, particularly for bears, wolves and other large carnivores that require large and relatively untouched areas to survive. What is needed therefore is: effective implementation of the European system of protected areas; a better understanding of the importance of protecting these values; and forceful measures to ensure that wilderness areas are recognised and protected.
In particular, wilderness zones must be recognised and given extra protection within the Natura 2000 network. Guidance must be given to EU Member States on the best ways to ensure the protection of present and potential wilderness and wildlands and their natural processes.
Wilderness initiatives across Europe
The EU Wilderness conference, which took place on May 27-28 in Prague, followed on a December 2008 communication by the European Parliament calling on the European Commission to develop a wilderness strategy coherent with the EU's Birds and Habitats Directives.
Growing interest in wilderness at the EU level mirrors growing concern and an increasing number of initiatives from across the continent aimed at securing and even expanding Europe's last wilderness areas.
The Prague Wilderness Conference gave WWF an opporunity to launch an initiative to promote the southern Carpathians as the continent's largest remaining wilderness area. Much of the area is already under some form of protection. Thirteen national or nature parks together cover some 625,000 hectares; this, together with another five areas to be designated as specially protected sites under the EU's Natura 2000 network, brings the total protected area to over 1 million hectares.
In Slovakia, the NGO Vlk (Wolf) has been working to protect 10 percent of the country's forested areas through a mixture of advocacy and campaigning, as well as land purchase and renting. PAN Parks, a joint venture of WWF and Molecaten, a tourism company, has taken an innovative approach to support the creation of a network of well-managed wilderness protected areas across Europe, mixing strict management guidelines on the one hand with support for development of wilderness-focused tourism on the other. To date, 10 PAN Parks have been established throughout Europe from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean, from Retezat National Park in Romania to the Archipelago National Park in Finland.
In future, there may be new opportunities not only to preserve but actually expand wilderness areas in Europe, at least in some places.
Several initiatives taking place throughout Europe are providing inspiring lessons that nature has a remarkable ability to regenerate itself. "Re-wilding" comes spontaneously, requiring only time and a restraint of human intervention. Just as importantly, they suggest that restraining human intervention is possible, even in densely settled Europe.
Indeed, it is not so much a question of restraining, but rather channelling human activities and finding ways in which we can enjoy and profit from nature without destroying it.
