Attitudes towards wilderness and public demands on wilderness areas

Abstract

In recent years the general conditions for land use in Switzerland for agriculture and forestry have changed as less area is needed for farming. Primary production is no longer profitable and state subsidies have been reduced. This means that decisions will have to be made about whether to abandon the cultivation of many areas of land now used for agriculture and forestry. In addition, some nature conservation organisations are lobbying to stop many areas of land from being used for agriculture and forestry and to have them designated as conservation areas. As a result of these developments, wilderness and its spread have been the subject of debate in Switzerland for some years now. The main focus of discussion has not, however, been primary wilderness, i.e. the state that prevails when there has never been any visible human intervention. Rather the focus has been much more on the spread of secondary wilderness, which develops when the controlling human interventions are discontinued and the land returns to wilderness. The debate has involved political decision makers, nature conservation organisations, and local stakeholders. To ensure that decisions about the future development of the landscape are also carried by the general public, it is important to discover the basis of the public's support for, or its opposition to, wilderness and its spread. What is involved besides or in addition to expert knowledge, and what conceptions of wilderness and wilderness areas do people have? © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.