European Wilderness Journal 03/2015

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The European Wilderness Society is Pan-European, wilderness and environmental advocacy organization with a dedicated multi-cultural and very experienced professional team of wilderness and wildlife specialists, nature conservationists, researchers and scientists, tourism experts, marketing and business professionals, legal advisors and wilderness advocates whose mission is to:identify,designate,managepromote European wild areas and wildernessEducating the next generation of Europeans on WildernessThe multi-cultural and very experienced professional team of the European Wilderness Society is very dedicated to this mission.

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No. 3 | 2015

European Wilderness
Journal

National Park Hohe Tauern

€ 7,50 Donation Fee

European Wilderness Journal

The future of wilderness
in Europe
Dear friends of the wild!

Letter to the editors

During the “Conference on Wilderness and Large Natural Habitat Areas”
in 2009 a discussion of an official definition of “Wilderness” was started and
finalized in 2012. The European Wilderness Quality Standard and Audit
System was defined to state the various subjects and indicators of wilderness.

I am most impressed with the scope of work being undertaken by the European Wilderness Society.  I am following the
Society’s efforts with Wilderness Verification, the Green Infrastructure plan and the importance of non-extractive values.
Keep up the good work! – Dan Mulrooney

This is the official side of wilderness, the side we as the European Wilderness Society and numerous organisations and NGO’s, such as the Wilderness
Working Group, the WWF and the WEI, work with or base our work on.
But a definition is always just a summary and often a compromise of various
different point of views.
The 500+ indicators and the minimum of 14 days of field work enabled us
to compare three totally different wilderness habitat types against a common
wilderness definition.
So even if there is our official European Wilderness Quality Standard and
Audit System – What is wilderness for us? What do we, every single one of us,
mean with the term wilderness? Is it a primeval forest, new emerging areas
due to the glacier recession or an abandoned military area? Is it the occurrence
of wolf, lynx, bear or eagle?
My personal definition of wilderness, while working for the European
Wilderness Society, is based on this official scientific definition and quality
standards but it is more than that: for me wilderness is where nature is truly
master of itself. Where humans don’t play any role in nature’s cycles but where
we are part of the bigger picture as we are part of nature – as equals. Humans
are a part of nature and not master of it and wilderness reminds us of that.
That might be frightening and challenging, but we should take the opportunity to open our eyes and minds to learn from Mother Earth.

Verena Gruber, Trainee

Thank you!
Thank you for the increasing number of subscribers who are
donating € 50,- to allow us to write, edit, print and distribute the
European Wilderness Journal.

2

PEGNet Project
This is a project that exactly reflects one of the main priorities
as I see it for the protection of biodiverse life as we know it.
The other would be targeted protection for species at immediate risk, and their habitat. I’m currently studying environmental
science with the OU ( because they don’t do an ecology degree),
with the hope of becoming involved in useful projects in the
future, so it would be great to be able to help in some way with
enabling green corridors in Europe. One obvious species that
would benefit is the Iberian Lynx, successfully brought back
from near extinction, it’s future looks bleak without enabling
them to migrate through green corridors. – Simon Barton
PEGNet Project
I am a huge advocate for large scale wildlife projects and I
believe this is something in the past which had been missing
from Europe. We have seen in America and Canada with the
Y2Y project that large scale projects can raise the issue of wilderness conservation in the public. The need for a large scale
corridor is becoming more and more important with the increase in bears and wolves in Europe. After taking a real interest
in the large scale corridors across North America and Africa the
opportunity to become involved in a project in Europe would
be something truly special for me. I honestly believe that with
the increased land abandonment across Europe this vision is
achievable. – Guy Bennet
I visited Kalkalpen NP in summer 2012. Natural forces shape
park’s landscape and increase heterogeneity in very impressive
ways. Places like Kalkalpen NP have very great value as reference ecosystems. Such places could also wash our minds from
bias of the “shifting baseline syndrome”. After all humans are
not the only makers of heterogeneous landscapes. I believe this
could be also a great lesson for a new generation of management
practices in Natura2000 sites. Kalkalpen NP is a wonderful place
in a wonderful Country! – Dario Botti

Wilderness ticker


Annual report
The European Wilderness Society is the only Pan-European, wilderness
and environmental advocacy organisation whose mission is to identify, designate, manage and promote European wilderness. These past months have
been a big success. We developed the European Wilderness Quality Standard
and Audit System, launched various online communication tools and organized the first European Wilderness Academy Days in Mittersill. Our most important activities and objectives are highlighted in our annual report. Available either as a download on our website or in printed form from our office.

European Wilderness Society Scholarship



The European Wilderness Society has worked closely with numerous national and regional authorities and NGOs in the Ukraine to
assist in the protection of Europe´s last wilderness. As part of our
engagement in the Ukraine, the European Wilderness Society awards
two half scholarship worth € 6,450 for the postgraduate MS.c.
Management of Protected Areas programme for one outstanding and
wilderness oriented full-time first-year student from the Ukraine. The
scholarships require a thesis focusing on wilderness related management, protection, communication, stakeholder or wildlife issues. The
University of Klagenfurt, Austria, offers this international postgraduate MSc programme for dedicated individuals, who want to broaden
and deepen their knowledge on protected areas management.



National Park Hohe Tauern wilderness verification

From 28th of July till 6th of August two verifiers of the European Wilderness Society, Verena Gruber and Vlado Vancura, visited the Hohe Tauern National Park in Salzburg for the first field wilderness assessment of
the proposed wilderness area around the Großvenediger. Starting from
Mittersill, all four valleys of the proposed wilderness have been explored: the
Krimmler Achen-Valley, the Ober- and the Untersulzbach-valley and the
Habach-valley. Those field trips have been accompanied by the park’s Director Wolfgang Urban or the Deputy Director Ferdinand Lainer who made it
possible to discuss most of the EWS – criteria and indicators on site.

School Programme on large carnivores



The European Wilderness Society, in particular our large carnivore
expert Gudrun Pflüger, visited several schools in Austria to inform
them during a one day program about the large carnivores, especially
the wolf, and their important roles in the ecosystems. The kids were
able to touch a real wolf fur, compare wolf foot prints, cut out their
own wolf masks and compete with several wildlife species in a long
jump competition. An other highlight was a howling and marking
exercise.

www.wilderness-society.org

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European Wilderness Journal

Wilderness Academy Days
2015
Research colleagues, wilderness managers and fellow wilderness advocates,
you are all more than welcome to participate in this year´s European Wilderness
Academy Days
Author: Verena Gruber

The

2nd European Wilderness Academy Days will be held in the
National Park Gesäuse from September 30th
to October 2nd this year. Europe´s most profound wilderness advocates will again convene in Austria to discuss the latest developements on wilderness in Europe.
The word “Gesäuse” stands for „wild water
and steep rock“ and you will have the chance
to experience this unique and wild landscape
in the heart of Austria during our field trips
on the second day of our conference.
You can choose between three different
field trips to the new emerging wild areas in

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the National Park that will give you some interesting insights into the real effect of climate
change. Speakers from all over Europe will
present interesting topics such as wilderness
restoration and connectivity, trans-boundary
wilderness, the link between wilderness and
sustainable tourism and how to engage the
next generation in wilderness protection. Sessions about Natura2000 management, wilderness and green infrastructure as well as about
wild rivers and wetlands will bring you new
insights to those topics.
A presentation about the journey of Ivo the
bear will round off our evenings. Vlado Vancura, Director of Wilderness Development,

will present the results of the three European Wilderness Quality Standards Audits this
year in three completely different habitats
from primeval beech forests, to glacial landscapes to alpine mixed forests.
If you have an interesting topic you would
like to present at the Wilderness Academy
Days please do not hesitate to contact us
immediately.
For all details concerning programme,
registration and accommodation please
visit the Website

www.wilderness.academy

See and meet us at the following events
September

Wildniskonferenz 2015
Stiftung Naturlandschaften Brandenburg
09.-10.09.2015, Potsdam, Germany
Wagnis Wildnis Nationalpark Hohe Tauern
17.-18.09.2015, Mittersill, Austria

Wildnis im Dialog
14.-17.09.2015, Insel Vilm, Germany
European Wilderness Academy Days
30.09.-02.10.2015, Nationalpark Gesäuse,
Austria

October

Europarc Annual Conference
26.-27.10.2015, Regensburg, Germany
Wildnistagung
23.10.2015, Biosphärenpark Rhön, Germany,

www.wilderness-society.org

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European Wilderness Journal

“Vallachian Vatra”
holiday village
An innovative green tourism project to preserve unique Carpathian culture and wilderness
Author: Constantin Serban and Adela Talpes

Romanian

Carpathian mountains are well known
for their wild nature treasures, the
biggest population of large carnivores, as well as the breathtaking landscapes. The tourists looking for wilderness will be pleasantly surprised
to meet during their hiking traditional wooden house spread among
green peaks and shepherds grazing their sheep and goats in the traditional way, same as hundreds of years before, using nature friendly techniques, in close relation with wilderness. They are the descendants of
the Vlachs, the Romanized populations of Central and Eastern Europe,
named Vallachs by foreign people. The name of “Vlachs” appears for the
first time in 976 in Greek chronicler John Skiliţes writings.

Their ability to maintain their lands in a natural state and preserve
their traditional way of living should be encouraged. They could also be
partners in generating income to improve their life conditions and their
children’s education.

Basically Vlachs are present today throughout Europe but mainly in the Carpathian area of Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Ukraine,
Slovakia, Czech Republic (there is even a “Vlach autonomous region”)
and Poland, a proof for the continuity of Vlachs civilization along the
Carpathians.

Those men have that particular form of intelligence which we consider today interesting and even intriguing; brave and from one piece
as they seem, they are still authentic and true to their own nature
connected to the surrounding nature. Their style has grown from the
inside, and it is an expression of their history and living into the mountains wilderness.

Vallachian civilization show striking similarities across the Carpathians in terms of ethnography, folklore and rural economy and it has a
common part of the vocabulary, kept both in dialectal archaism and in
the mountain toponymy.
Unfortunately these traditional shepherds are rarer, due to the
modern life style getting even to the high peaks of the mountains and
the vallachian culture values are going to be forgotten unless highlighted
and valued for the next generations.

Community and wilderness - Vallachian style

Due to the character of their interesting way of economy, the Vallachs
were predestined to a traveling, roving, and semi-nomadic life. From
time to time, in order to survive and make a living, they had to move
from one place to another because there were many of them and the
original mountain region could not support them.

Only because the Vallachs lived so high in the mountains, far away
from economical and cultural centers, they were allowed to maintain
their authentic way of life along with an ancient way of production. It
was first of all an unusual way of breeding sheep and goats which were
grazed for the whole summer in the mountains, where at the same
location milk, wool, and other products were worked up.
In the beginning, they did not have villages with permanent buildings. Instead, they constructed a “salas/coliba” for a family and many
of these huts for a group of families around a “vatra” or fire pit as the
central place of meeting, socializing and making decisions.
Sheep and traditional Vallachian shepherding, now slowly dies,
“colibas” are abandoned, trails are blocked and springs are clogging,
invasive species grow on the lands, less shepherds and donkeys with
saddlebags can be seen. Seasonal stables become ruins, many deserted
hamlets and entire villages have only few old inhabitants. In many places
gaudy reproductions have replaced the icons on glass on the Vallachian
houses walls and you can count on fingers the people who know how to
make a “tulnic” (traditional musical instrument), a “cerga” (sheep wool
blanket) or a mill operated with water.

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“Vallachian Vatra” holiday village project

To avoid irreversible losing this cultural treasure of the Carpathian
heritage, Green-tourism Ecological Association a national environmental NGO focused on tourism from Romania started the “Vallachian
Vatra” Project, having the motto: “Return to the roots, a Carpathian
people message from the past, found in the present.”
The project “Vallachian Vatra” (Vatra Valaha) aims to build a traditional holiday village to express on bio-eco-ethno-logical principles
the picturesque and functionality of traditional architecture specific to
Vallachians peasant spread across Europe and also the characteristic
hospitality of areas currently occupied in the present by the descendants
of the Vallachs.
The “Vallachian Vatra” village is a green tourism model that gathers
around an ancient fire pit/“vatra” all these principles and who aims to
facilitate access to authentic traditional Vallachian culture of all those
who want to know and live the healthy lifestyles, the millenary traditions, customs and hospitality of the Vlachs.
The rural development through this green tourism project proves the
applicability of a green business scheme development in the social and
cultural tourism and it is the first pilot project in Romania which, besides bio / eco and cultural component (based on secular history and
agrarian traditions of Vallachian shepherds) it has a social component
based on helping 7 families in poor economic condition on the principle ”provide rod instead of fish.” In the specific rural Vlachs settlements
you can always find clean air and clear water springs that come from
the Carpathian Mountains. They were for centuries the keepers of the
Vallachian material and spiritual heritage, which have taken over and
integrated elements of local culture, created, invented and permanently
adapted to historical socio-economic conditions.

The pleasure to visit at least some of these rural settlements in hours
is impossible today in real conditions of modern society. This can be
achieved only by visiting a single centralized site designed as a living
museum containing seven of the most representative traditional houses from each Carpathian country, each of them with accommodation
facilities and a specific Vallachian craft shop.
The “Vallachian Vatra” project is planned to be implemented in a
holistic and comprehensive way, combining the promotion of the
vallachian life style with conservation programs, health, and education
activities that serve the community, the Carpathian nature and the wildlife that are so important to all of us.
The first step is the construction of Manor House (building with
administrative, meetings and accommodation role) which is going to
start next year in the spring, using European funds. For the rest of the
village, the association is looking for partners, investors and volunteers.
If you want to become their supporter, whatever small, your donation
will be of great help.
The project initiators hope the success of Vallahian Vatra as a holiday
village, offering genuine and sustainable tourism, can make it a replicable model to address the needs of other communities in Central and
Eastern Europe.

www.wilderness-society.org

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European Wilderness Journal

Wilderness assessment
Case study Kalkalpen NP, Austria
Author: Vlado Vančura

In

the heart of Austria lies an island of
wilderness. A piece of land where for
the purpose of wilderness conservation more
than 100 kilometres of forest roads have either already stopped being used, abandoned
or actively restored. It is a land where not
only the park management, researchers and
experts can monitor and learn what natural
dynamism really means but also where visitors are able to see and explore what spontaneous natural processes without any human
intervention or control means to ecosystems.

versity e.g. a recent inventory confirmed the
presence of 1500 species of butterflies. Further on a long systematic research revealed
that there are also 35 species of beetle which
are fully depended on the dead wood. These
beetles - wilderness relict species – desperately need dead wood to exist.

Wilderness and biodiversity

The Kalkalpen Wilderness is an excellent
example that wilderness is not only to be
found in remote parts of our planet or in the
far north or at the top of high mountains. It
is an area with more than 10,000 ha of wilderness located right in the middle of Europe.

It is a piece of land where for more than 15
years management focuses on wilderness restoration and the reintroduction of lynx. They
also were pioneers in permitting bark beetle
to thrive without intervention. It is a land
where researchers explore surprising biodi-

8

The Kalkalpen Wilderness is thus an evidence that wilderness can be protected also in
Central Europe. It is also proof that wilderness protects European biodiversity.

Because of the quality, the Kalkalpen
Wilderness was the subject of a detailed
wilderness audit with more than 500 indicators carried out by a team of European Wilderness Society verifiers in June 2015.

Wilderness site assessment

The European Wilderness Society wilderness experts spent 14 days in the Kalkalpen
Wilderness. Besides a few days in the office to
collect all needed information and to discuss
difficult issues such as wildlife management
or temporary fragmentation of wilderness
zone, the team spent most of the days in remote parts of the park. The team was guided
and supported by local park wilderness experts including the director of Kalkalpen Nationalpark – Mr. Erich Mayrhofer and many
other members of his staff. During the audit,
besides the longterm wilderness vision, the

Vatnajökull NP
Iceland

Helsinki
Oslo
Stockholm

Tallinn

Riga
Moskva

Vilnius

Minsk
Dublin

team discussed park history and zonation, the
size of the wilderness zone and management,
biodiversity and wilderness restoration and
sustainable tourism aspects. The interaction
with the highly skilled park staff and rangers provided additional information such as
the wildlife management during the winter
months or about the strategy of dealing with
bark beetle in the wilderness and management zone. The wilderness assessement also
included a visit to the highest valley of the
Kalkalpen Wilderness which was used as an
Alpine grazing area in the past. Spontaneous
succession processes was subject of the evaluation together with an assessment of the
small pasture - islands within the core zone
that are still used by local people for cattle
grazing such as the Feichtauhütte (1360m)
as well as the lower situated Blumaueralm
(762m). The team observed and evaluated
also the impact of natural events such as avalanches on forest ecosystems. Combining
EWQA Wilderness Diploma and UNESCO’s World Heritage List Kalkalpen Wilderness includes also several fragments of the
old growth beech forests (5.250 ha), now
inscribed to the UNESCO tentative candidates list of UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
Kalkalpen Wilderness thus contributes to
the protection of Primeval Beech Forests
in Europe, together with other Wilderness
candidates Zacharovanij Kraj NP, Ukraine,
currently also in a process of EWQA assessment this year.

Berlin
Warszawa
London

Bruxelles

Bonn

Kiev

Liptovský Hrádok

Paris

Vienna

Uzhhorod

Bratislava
Tamsweg

Györ

Budapest

Bern
Ljubljana

Druillat

Bucaresti

Sofia

Roma

Madrid

Tirana

Tbilisi

Bak
Ankara

Yerevan

Lisboa

Desertas Islands NP, Portugal
Garajonay NP, Spain

www.wilderness-society.org

9

European Wilderness Journal

Team in Action

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We appreciate your
donation to
support our work!
European Wilderness Society
IBAN: AT41 1200 0100 0833 8476
BIC: BKAUATWW

www.wilderness-society.org

11

European Wilderness Journal

Bears can coexist
with people
Lessons from northern Spain
Author: Roberto Hartasánchez, President FAPAS – www.fapas.es
Translated by: Karin Eckhard

In

the early 80s of the last century, the Iberian Peninsula only had
two free roaming bear populations. One of them inhabited the
Pyrenees Mountains wandering between France and Spain. The other
population survived in the Cantabrian Mountains in the heavily settled
area of north central Spain. Each population had no more than 40 bears
and they were the last individuals of a species that had for many centuries inhabited a large part of Spain and Portugal. It was during this
time in the 1980s when the concerns for the survival of not only bears
but other large carnivores, such as wolves and lynx began. With such
small populations of bears, it seemed that their extinction was inevitable. Thirty years later and despite occupying a large natural area, that is
exactly what happened in the Pyrenees and only with reintroductions
of bears from Slovenia does this area have a very small population.

The challenges of coexisting

However, the bears in the Cantabrian Mountains, where scientists
believed that they would become extinct, they have persisted despite
a less natural area. Its population has expanded to a much larger area
of Asturias, perhaps about 200 specimens living in complete freedom
occupying an area of about 10,000 square kilometres. Although the future is worrying for this population, each year, there are new cubs and
breeding females are boosting the numbers.

Thirty years of work by FAPAS (Fondo para la Protection de los Animales Salvajes) has shown that it is possible. Today the bears live in
areas where there are thousands of people. They approach villages and
everything seems normal, there are no problems. Conservation work
has shown that the bears have survived because of the human activity
in these areas taking advantage of obtaining additional food resources.
Moreover, the harsh terrain of these mountains, deep valleys and vast
forests, many of them had been planted by man, offers a safe haven for
bears, though living in the vicinity of a village. The protein source that
human activity makes available to bears in the form of carcasses of dead
pets that have died of natural causes or have been abandoned in the
mountains, has been one of the guarantees of their survival.

Bears have reached this population level with serious genetic problems and continued persecution. In the mountains of Asturias, the bear
is protected, but poaching persists and the bear is a coveted target. In
addition, the bears supposedly cause damage to agriculture, smash
crops and kill domestic cattle. They are considered the enemies of man.
One of the biggest problems is that bear territory is also human territory. The Cantabrian Mountains have a high concentration of towns
and villages. Several hundred thousand people share and live together
with wild animals, including bears which seemed to justify their extinction. Even scientists and specialist also believed it was not possible for
bears to live where there are people.

Management of living with wild animals

It was necessary to study and discover the special ecology of the bears
who have adapted to living together in the same territory as humans for
hundreds of years. This special population of bears is without aggression and with a high rate of fertility. It has only been necessary to focus
on combating poaching, which in the past was very intense and still
exists today. The other focus was for society to be concerned and to understand that large carnivores such as bears are a sign of social identity
of the territory. Asturias, is proud to have bears in the mountains and
now killing bears is a crime and socially unacceptable.
However, despite these successes, new problems arise which must
have a political solution. The European Union has banned that corpses of animals are left in nature, which is generating an unprecedented
crisis in territories with wild animals such as carrion, bears, wolves,
vultures relying on carcasses as a source of protein. They have lost an

12

important source of food that was presen mestic livestock have multiplied, creating a social opposition to its presence. The Regional Administration authorized the killing of 60 wolves each year without any
scientific studies to support this decision.

The political struggle uses these arguments of wildlife damage to
their advantage and starts to explain that the problem is too many bears
or wolves. After thirty years of work, we could lose everything that we
have already achieved if we do not react now. But there are few voices
calling for the reverse of the ruling by the EU, domestic animals that
have died of natural causes or been abandoned should be left in nature.
Vatnajökull NP
Iceland

Helsinki

Oslo

Stockholm

Tallinn

The Cantabrian Mountains are something special, a wild world of
bears and wolves in the midst of a modern society, an unprecedented natural heritage in western Europe that we have conserved through
wisdom and experience. If we do nothing, the region will go the way of
the Pyrenees, essential devoid of bears and wolves.

Riga

Vilnius

Mins

Dublin

Berlin
Warszawa
London

Bruxelles

Bonn

Liptovský Hrádok

Paris

Vienna

Uzhhorod

Bratislava
Tamsweg

Györ

Budapest

Bern
Ljubljana

Druillat

Bucaresti

Sofia

Roma

Tirana

Madrid

Lisboa

Desertas Islands NP, Portugal
Garajonay NP, Spain

www.wilderness-society.org

13

European Wilderness Journal

Complicated wilderness story
of Šumava National Park
The never ending fight for wilderness
Author: Jaromir Blahá

Šumava

– the (much larger) Czech counterpart of the
Bayerischer Wald National Park – represents
the largest continuous forested area in Central Europe and is one of
the most crucial biodiversity sites. To quote IUCN, this national park
is “part of the largest, best conserved and most species rich forested
area in Central Europe”. It is a vital habitat to some endangered species,
including capercaillie, black grouse, lynx, elk and Ural owl. Its peat bogs
and waterlogged forests are a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
Šumava National Park was declared in March 1991 in the central
region of the mountain range running along the borders with Germany
and Austria. At that time, mayors of the involved municipalities demanded a national park of European importance in accordance with
IUCN requirements. The National park extends over an area of 690
square kilometres. Forests form almost 84 % of the area, with meadows
and pastures accounting for 7 %. About 1,000 square kilometres of Šumava Protected Landscape Area serve as the national park’s buffer zone
and protecting some natural features of the region that lie outside the
Park. The entire territory including the Protected Landscape Area was
registered as a UNESCO biosphere reserve.
The National Park is a mosaic of the remains of primeval forest,
peat-bogs and peat meadows, successions of areas with vegetation
after former villages, glacial lakes, watercourses and forests more or less
changed by humans. There are a few small villages inside this natural complex. The overwhelming majority of settlements ceased to exist
after a forcible transfer of the German minority after the Second World
War and after closing part of the territory behind the so-called Iron
Curtain by the former Communist regime. After the designation of
the national park in 1991 there was a unique opportunity to renovate
the undisturbed natural processes on a relatively large area in Central
Europe, to observe interactions among various ecosystems and to
create there a vital space for demanding species such as the lynx and
potentially also for wolf and bear. Šumava NP is therefore one of the
best opportunities for wilderness restoration in Europe.

Conflicting interests

However, Šumava NP is under heavy pressure from logging and
development interests. Crucially, they promote large scale clear-cut
logging under the disguise of preventing the spread of bark beetles. The
dispute about the national park will determine more than the future of

14

Šumava. The topic has already become the focal point in a wider debate
about recognition of wilderness protection as a relevant government
policy, with high level political interventions.
In 1995, the first zone (core zone) of Šumava NP was reduced from
22% to only 13% and fragmented into 135 isolated parts. The resulting
small size of individual fragments does not however allow the main national park goal to be attained – the undisturbed protection of natural
ecosystem processes.
The National Park Administration responded to the 1995 - 1998 increase in spruce bark beetle population by cutting down trees in a large
scale outside of fragmented first zones. This cutting opened the forest
canopy to wind, creating plenty of open forest stand walls. Subsequent
windbreaks falled down much more trees than were originally affected
by bark beetle itself. Large clear-cut areas arose in the National Park.
This occurred especially in the high elevations along the border with
Bayerischer Wald National Park (above 1,300 metres), but also in other
places.
In 1999 the National Park administration and the Czech Ministry
of Environment allowed spruce trees infested by bark beetles to be cut
also in first zones of Šumava NP. Fortunately the bark beetle outbreak

ended but the natural development of habitats
for the future was not protected even in primeval forests. This led to extensive protests
among scientists and NGOs. Hnutí DUHA
– Friends of the Earth Czech Republic organized a peaceful blockade of tree felling
in the so called “Trojmezenský prales” – the
oldest and most conserved remnant of montane spruce old growth forest in the Czech
Republic, where over 1000 trees were marked
to be cut down. The blockade lasted for two
months and succeeded in stopping the tree
logging in the primeval forest. This achievement opened a public debate which addressed
not only the problem of the bark beetle, but
the general topic of the mission of national
parks, as well. Under the threat of further protests the Ministry of Environment took part
in discussions with scientists and ecological
NGOs. The proceedings led to the invitation
of an IUCN expert mission by the Ministry in
order to obtain an attitude and recommendation of a suitable course.

Politically influenced management

The IUCN/WCPA expert mission visited
Šumava National Park in autumn 2002, after
a changeover in the Ministry lead. In 2003
IUCN handed over a report, recommending (among others) the uniting of the fragmented first zones into a few compact units,
increasing their area to 30-40% of the park
extent within 3-5 years and keeping a basically non-intervention regime. Environmental
minister decided to act in accordance with
the IUCN recommendation.
In 2003 the felling of trees infested by the

bark beetle in the first zones was stopped.
In 2005 the NP Šumava administration put
forth a new Park strategy based on the fundamental vision: “The Šumava National Park
protects a unique mountain scenery in a territory of attractive cultural character, facilitating an undisturbed development of its area
and opening it for exploration. It would like
to be a place of encounter between the visitors and the natural beauty of wilderness.” But
the municipalities refused this new strategy.
Similarly, they refused the proposal for a new
zonation which would unite the inappropriate
fragmentation.
Following the hurricane Kyrill in 2007,
which completely devastated the stands affected by earlier felling of bark beetle infected
trees, the Ministry decided to leave especially montane forests (in first as well in second
zones) free of tree logging on an area of over
30% of the territory of Šumava National Park.
Following the new outbreak of bark beetle
these forests turned into a fascinating wilderness.
But after a next change of the Government
it came to a turnaround again. The new Minister recalled the Park director and established
Mr. Stráský, who refused to take over the already prepared European diploma, dissolved
the scientific section of the National Park
Council and commenced tree felling in areas left over to wilderness in the past. Logging
did not stop neither after appeals from dozens
of prominent Czech scientists nor repeated
warnings from NGOs, pointing out that the

Park headquarters is violating the Czech Nature Protection Law and other European directives (Habitat Directive, Birds Directive).
After this, conservationists, joined by part
of the public, began a non-violent blockade
of tree logging in the area of “Ptačí potok”
(Bird creek) at Modrava moor. During several
weeks the participants faced crude actions of
special police squads called into action by the
Park director. This led to even stronger public protests and a demonstrations before the
Ministry of Environment, getting the Minister to stop the felling.
Several months later Czech courts had
acted and in 2013 have confirmed that protesters, including many members of Hnutí
DUHA/Friends of the Earth Czech Republic,
who blocked loggers in Šumava National Park
in 2011 acted peacefully, legitimately and in
complete accordance with the law. Police intervention, however, and the tree-felling itself,
have both been deemed illegal.
In May 2012, preceding the expected visit of European Committee representatives,
the Environmental Minister suspended Mr.
Straský as director of the Park and designated
the deputy director, responsible for the illegal felling, instead. The upstart director then
prepared a new proposal of the management
plan, including the downgrade of Sumava NP
from IUCN category II to category IV. Along
with the Minister they together prepared and
put forth a special bill for NP Šumava, legalizing tree felling in areas formerly left to natural
development and weakening the protection

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15

European Wilderness Journal

of the NP landscape against building development. The International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) warned the past government about
a similar proposal that “by accepting the management proposed in the
bill, Šumava will not be eligible to retain the IUCN category II status
(national park)”.
The issue is of significance not only for the future of nature protection in the Czech Republic, but also beyond -- not least in relation to the
review of EU nature conservation legislation which is expected to take
place in the next couple of years.
Re-designation of the Park, which is also one of the key Natura 2000
sites in Central Europe, would be extremely dangerous as a major precedent because of the domino effect. A blatant breaching of Natura 2000
rules in a site of crucial importance, one which has been under protection of both national and EU legislation, would set a dangerous example
for other governments. In view of this domino effect this action poses a
challenge to the protective status of national parks everywhere.
The Environmental Minister and the MPs of the Environmental
Comitee of the Czech Parliament obtained a petition letter from 72 directors of European nature preservation institutions (see http://www.
sumava-kurovec.cz/include/Dopis%2072%20reditelu.pdf)
Thanks to the 2013 fall of the Government, and the subsequent dissolution of the Parliament, the MPs were not able to discuss the bill.
The new Environmental Minister confirmed the interest of managing the NP Šumava as an internationally distinguished National Park
of IUCN Category II, suspended the director and posted a director,
which committed himself to observing the nature conservation laws,
stopping all projects which would injure the nature of Šumava. Minister approved a temporary three-year management plan, reducing the
non-intervention area to 23%, though, with an additional 5% where
action against the bark beetle is allowed only exceptionally and where
practically no intervention took place in this year.
Therefore a group of senators started to push forward a new draft

16

of a special law on Šumava NP again, based on the worst from all the
previous ones. The draft was disastrous: it envisaged no true wilderness
zones in the national park and would pave the way for major new development projects such as ski resorts and new building construction,
i.e. new hotels, family-hotels, apartment-hotels and similar facilities on
2/3 of the NP Šumava area. Furthermore, the bill proposed to decrease
protection of forests in the National Park to a lower degree than is
usual in current commercial forests in the rest of the country. This
group of senators succeeded in gaining support for their proposal
among the Senate of the Czech Republic and passed it as a Senate legislation proposal to the Czech Parliament.

Hnuti DUHA steps in

Hnutí DUHA – FoE CR started a huge campaign to mobilise the public, building on excellent popularity of the national park and a general
public support for the protection of wilderness. Development interests
have got strong political backing – but they are also deeply unpopular,
and many politicians recognise that.
This is why the strategy was based on encouraging thousands of people to write to their members of parliament (MPs). Hnuti DUHA – FoE
CR already started to develop a network of young people committed to
Šumava, who are also ready to visit politicians personally. Tourists in
the national park, who are worried about the damage they witness in
the existing clear-cut sites, formed another key target group.
Hnuti DUHA – FoE CR mobilised the public also through a petition and several concerts for Šumava wilderness with the help of Czech
musical groups well known among young people. Dozens of volunteers
collected signatures under the petition available on information stalls
in Šumava, in cities and during music festivals as well. Hnuti DUHA –
FoE CR addressed both the public and MPs using the slogan “a piece of
wilderness is in every heart”.
People from Hnuti DUHA – FoE CR spent much of time meeting
with key MPs persuading them to refuse the draft. Also, they organised
additional activities to convince them, like excursions to the national

park so that MP´s could directly see what the
felling in contrary to wilderness protection is
about, a successful approach in the past.
Hnuti DUHA – FoE CR prepared own
legislation proposals and together with scientists from the Czech Academy of Science
also a zoning proposal suggesting 50% of
Šumava NP as core zone – wilderness area
(http://www.ejes.cz/index.php/ejes/article/
view/119/56) and proposed strict rules to
prevent inappropriate building development
and future damages due to mismanagement.

The Šumava wilderness campaign

Thanks to cooperation with Wild Europe
an economic study to assess three various scenarios of NP Šumava evolution was applied.
The study “An Outline of Economic Impacts
of Management Options for Šumava National
Park” was carried out by a reputable British
company EFTEC, concluding that the expansion of the wilderness to 50% of Park area
is economically advantageous as well (see
EFTEC study: http://www.sumava-kurovec.
cz/include/Economic_Assessment_of_Sumava_National_Park,_eftec,_Final_Report.
pdf). So, during parliamentary debates, Hnuti
DUHA – FoE CR suggested own proposal as
a solution which is both ecologically and economically advantaged.
The campaign organized by Hnutí DUHA
- Friends of the Earth Czech Republic turned
out to be very successful. Over 43 000 people,
including well known artists (many of them
from Czech National Theatre), musicians
and writers signed the petition „For a good
law on the Šumava National Park“. Addition-

ally, MP´s obtained over one thousand of
personal mails mainly from visitors of the
National Park. Renowned Czech musical
bands and several musicians directly supported the Šumava wilderness campaign
during three “concerts for Šumava wilderness” taking place in Prague and in Southern
Bohemia. Hnutí DUHA – FoE CR revealed
with the help of media real estate speculations and connections between politicians
and businessmen profiting from the bill. The
Czech Parliament decisively voted down the
Senate´s bill in October.
But this is not an end to the debate. The
Ministry of Environment is preparing its own
novelization of the Nature Protection Act,
which should be valid for all Czech national
parks generally. Consequently a new zonation
will be prepared for NP Šumava. The municipalities succeeded in suing the provisional
three-year management plan and the court

obliged the Ministry to withdraw it. However,
this judgement is not final yet.
The outcome of the described twenty years
of controversy about NP Šumava is above all
a significant shift in public opinion. Before
twenty years, most people agreed with actions
against the bark beetle and environmentalists were considered fools trying to protect a
feared forest pest. The term “wilderness” had
a pejorative touch and was not very popular.
Today, “wilderness” is a demanded tourist
destination, as well as a label, often misused
for marketing purposes. But as the debate,
even in academic circles frequently shows the
content of the terms “wilderness” and “intervention-free” is not clear to many. Thus, the
next suitable step would be an introduction
of the definition of wilderness developed
by Wild Europe and the certification of the
European Wilderness Society and its model
application in NP Šumava.

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17

European Wilderness Journal

Picturing Wildlife
The Kalkalpen Wilderness, Austria
Fotos by Bart van Engeldorp Gastelaars

18

Wilderness curriculum for
aspiring nature conversation
managers
The European Wilderness Society, Hnutí DUHA – Friends of the Earth Czech Republic,
Mountain Wilderness and WOLF Forest Protection Movement have launched a new EU project
to enhance adult training opportunities and methods about wilderness and protected area issues.
Author: Katrin Schikorr & Anni Henning

Did

you always wanted to learn (again) how to light a fire without matches? To pick the right plants and turn them into
an eatable and enjoyable dish? Or to build a shelter out in the woods to
stay dry and safe for a night? All this sounds like nature camps for young
people, but wilderness trainings exists for adults too, in different forms
all over Europe.

project that aims to bring fundamental changes in the public attitude
towards wilderness by educating them about the various benefits of
wilderness and its importance. Project partners will look into existing wilderness education practices, encourage the exchange of
best-practices amongst countries and protected areas, and field test
innovated curricula of education programs.

Strictly protected areas are essential places to safeguard our European
Natural Heritage and also a source of increasingly valuable biological
and ecological information for scientists and the public, to whom wilderness offers wide educational opportunities and a strong emotional
experience.

The outcome of the 2-year Erasmus-funded EU project will be a
best-practice module on wilderness education methods for adults, as
well as guides for professionals and private interest groups resuming the
existing training offers.

So there is a lot to learn from protected areas, and the interest amongst
adults for on-going training programs on wild flora, fauna and natural
habitats and also on how to behave in and how to experience wild places
is high. Some protected areas have started to fill the gap of offer and
demand, and propose training courses.
The European Wilderness Society and three partner NGOs have
pooled their experiences in adult training and recently started an EU

Through the project, all partners aim to strengthen adult key competencies, increase the public interest for and understanding of wilderness
and thus help nature protection. In the sincere hope to link our ties to
nature again, and why not through a self-made meal prepared in a highly enjoyable natural surrounding?
Some of the findings will be presented at the European Academy Days
2015 in the National Park Gesäuse.

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19

Šumava National Park
© 2015 European Wilderness Society, ZVR: 305471009 | Dechant Franz Fuchs Str. 5; 5580 Tamsweg; Austria | Phone: +43 (0)676 913 88 04 | Email: [email protected] |
www.wilderness-society.org | Photo Credits: EWS, Max Rossberg, Gudrun Pflüger, Karin Eckhard, Vlado Vančura, Verena Gruber, fotolia.de., NP Gesäuße, Schloss Röthelstein, Sumac Training,
Bart van Engeldorp Gastelaars, Jaromir Blahá, Jim O’Donnell. Kathrin Schikorr | Design: www.diemedienwerkstatt.info, 5580 Tamsweg, Austria | Printed in Austria | All rights, errors and changes are reserved.

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