IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

The Wilderness Task Force was launched at the World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa, in 2003. The task force was established to respond to several needs:

• to promote dialogue on wilderness in the international conservation community,
• to provide a stronger voice for the wilderness constituency within WCPA, and
• to provide a formal linkage between IUCN and the World Wilderness Congresses

The Wilderness Task Force website is a key resource in achieving these objectives.

The creation of this task force also acknowledges an important trend, which is that the wilderness concept is moving inexorably into the mainstream around the world. In 1990 there were six countries with some form of wilderness legislation. Today there are nine countries with laws, and least nine more with wilderness policies or zoning mechanisms, and two countries with laws being drafted (Mexico and Turkey.

This trend is set to continue and accelerate because protecting large intact landscapes – and restoring fragmented or degraded areas – is usually the fastest, cheapest and simplest way to generate the full range of critical ecosystem services that we all depend on. From water supply to carbon sequestration to building resilient ecosystems for biodiversity conservation, particularly in the face of climate change, wilderness is a critical component of a healthy planet. We may not be able to prevent a climate change catastrophe without protecting our global wilderness resource. Protecting wilderness is also vital from a cultural perspective, whether wilderness conservation is achieved by indigenous groups seeking to protect their traditional lifestyles, or by urban groups looking for spiritual renewal. A planet without wilderness would be a deeply impoverished place, socially, spiritually, economically, and biologically.

Our job at the Wilderness Task Force is to help catalyze interest in wilderness protected areas within IUCN and globally, and to provide technical resources and guidance on wilderness conservation. In addition to launching its website, the Wilderness Task Force has been heavily engaged in WCPA’s recent revisions of its protected area category management guidelines and has cosponsored several new wilderness publications

Our next meeting place – and our next big opportunity to present the wilderness message to a broad and diverse global audience – will be at WILD9: The 9th World Wilderness Congress, which will be held in Merida in Mexico’s Yucatan from November 6-13, 2009. The full energy, passion, experience and technical capacity of the international wilderness conservation community will be concentrated in the Yucatan at WILD9, an event which will be an critical milestone in a number of ways – including the last opportunity to use an international platform to send a strong message on the essential role of wilderness in preventing, mitigating, and adapting to climate change before the critical UN climate meetings in Copenhagen. It will also present an excellent opportunity to gauge progress on meeting 2010 biodiversity targets before the Convention on Biological Diversity meetings.

IUCN and WCPA will be well represented in Merida: the WCPA Steering Committee will meet at WILD9, The Kenton Miller award will be presented at the Congress, we are working to hold an IUCN Council meeting at WILD9, and of course the Wilderness Task Force will also convene.

We hope you will join our work on this task force, and join us at WILD9!

1. Objectives:

• Promote research and discussion on the importance and role of wilderness;
• Help integrate wilderness related issues into WCPA publications, proceedings and meetings, and the World Parks Congress;
• Serve as a liaison between WCPA-IUCN and the World Wilderness Congress.

2. Products and Activities:

• Provide a framework for coordinating wilderness-related input for the World Parks Congress, specifically by developing a programme of wilderness-related presentations during World Parks Congress Workshop Streams;
• Develop IUCN and other publications relating to wilderness conservation, including proceedings from WTF activities at the World Parks Congress;
• Provide an expert referral service to the WCPA for wilderness-related issues;
• Establish an email list on the wilderness concept open to WCPA members.

3. Operations:

• The WTF will be co-chaired by Vance Martin (President, The WILD Foundation) and Khulani Mkhize (CEO, KZN Wildlife), with a secretariat provided by The WILD Foundation;
• The WTF will raise funds to cover operating costs;
• The WTF will act principally through email, though will hold occasional meetings

Wilderness was first officially recognized as an IUCN protected area category in 1992. However, the wilderness concept has always been well represented in the IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) – and its predecessor commission – on an ad hoc basis by numerous IUCN members, as well as through an informal but long-standing link between the IUCN and the World Wilderness Congress (and its sponsor, The WILD Foundation). Indeed, since its first meeting in 1977, the World Wilderness Congress has reported back regularly to the IUCN, helping define and advocating strongly for a wilderness category in the IUCN Framework for Protected Areas.

Nonetheless, there had been a need for more formal discussion of wilderness issues at WCPA meetings and in IUCN publications for some time, and this need became increasingly apparent after the WCPA took the important step of establishing Category 1(b) - Wilderness. As a result, during the WCPA meetings in Amman, Jordan, in 2000, The WILD Foundation's President, Vance Martin, proposed that a Wilderness Task Force (WTF) be established as an IUCN focal point for the wilderness concept, and to provide more formal representation in WCPA activities. David Sheppard (Head, IUCN Programme on Protected Areas) acknowledged this proposal in a letter dated 3 November 2000, and requested that The WILD Foundation develop more detailed terms of reference for the WTF.

After consultations with numerous wilderness NGOs, additional meetings at the 7th World Wilderness Congress (South Africa, 2001) and a series of communications with the WCPA Secretariat through November 2002, The WILD Foundation developed the WTF's terms of reference. Approved by the WCPA in March 2003, the Wilderness Task Force was formally introduced to IUCN members at the Vth World Parks Congress in September 2003.