• Approaches
• Benefits
• Challenges

Approaches

Non-intervention management as a practical tool of wilderness management

Photo: PGNP ArchiveProtecting wilderness requires special approaches in conservation and protected area management.
One approach in this oncept is that if rewilding through natural process is respected, natural dynamics are thus accepted. Rewilding through natural process is often considered as a threat, but it is also a huge opportunity. It can be considered as a threat if we want to protect a particular succession stage: and as an opportunity if we want to live and learn from the cycle of natural processes running the ecosystem.
In this case, non-intervention management (basically a prescription to do nothing) is applied. However, it is a very complex and difficult issue in the European context. In Europe, for millennia, people have altered the landscape and nature by active measures e.g. logging and grazing.

Non-intervention management is, at present, considered by a relatively small number of wild and wilderness area managers as the fundamental management tool; in part due to the deeply rooted traditional practices of active management measures: this makes implementation of the management technique difficult.
However, growing knowledge and use of non-intervention management, is proving the feasibility and effectiveness of this approach. The challenge of this ongoing discussion regarding management techniques is for it to get wider support and understanding, particularly with respect to the issues of biodiversity richness and ecosystem dynamics.

’To do nothing’ isn’t a very correct interpretation of non-intervention management as it obviously excludes management measures in the field, but puts much more emphasis on other extremely important ’supporting’ activities such as interpretation and education, community work, research, monitoring or lobbying.
This way of management should be actively planned and included in any management plan of a protected area. Experience has proven that non-intervention management is not only a legitimate approach, but it is also cheaper and more effective in managing protected areas where the main objectives are ecosystem dynamics and wilderness protection.

Restoration as a practical tool of wilderness management

Photo: MNP ArchiveAnother approach applied in wilderness protection is the implementation of active restoration measures. These measures can include the re-introduction of extinct species or the removal of non-native species. The objective of restoration should not, however, hurt the basic philosophy, which remains the area’s main objective.

Following the IUCN policy, protected area categories are primarily applied with respect to management objectives. They also relate to the aims of management rather than the current status, so several categories can be subject to wilderness restoration. However, in practice, active restoration is usually not suitable for every wild and wilderness area. For example, wilderness restoration is not usually appropriate for an area that will require indefinite active management interventions to maintain certain specifically defined biodiversity values.
In certain situations, restoration in a wild and wilderness area can be a time-limited intervention to undo past damage while, in others, changes have been so profound that continued, long-term intervention will be needed: this is often true if some ecological components, such as important species, have disappeared. Some ongoing intervention such as control of invasive species and prescribed burning in habitats under certain conditions, may be necessary.

Benefits

Ecological values

Photo: Orsolya Haarberg• For millions of years, nature has developed independently from human influence, and exists today without being managed. Dynamic processes including evolutionary processes are constantly at work in natural ecosystems – and should be considered as a legitimate and important aspect of biodiversity in any conservation programme.
• Protected areas and Natura 2000 sites sufficient in size with non-intervention management, provide significantly improved habitat quality and living conditions for species depending on undisturbed dynamic processes (e. g. as found in all primary forest habitats in Central Europe) and therefore provide a decisive contribution to saving biodiversity.
• Non-intervention management including natural disturbances (e. g. high winds, mass increase of insects, avalanches, wild fires) can be quite successful in restoring natural forest dynamics and meeting biodiversity conservation objectives.
• In the frame of a zoning system or management-plan guidelines, active restoration management accelerates the development of forest structural diversity and other old-growth conditions which sometimes are needed to rescue declining populations of species that depend on such structures.
• A network of smaller strict protected forest reserves without extractive use can help safeguard the protection of Natura 2000 target species outside large protected areas, e.g. national parks.
• Protected areas and Natura 2000 sites with a non-intervention approach provide excellent reference areas for natural habitats and assessment of the consequences of climate change. They represent open air laboratories for natural dynamics.
• Non-intervention management in protected areas and Natura 2000 sites reduces the export of nutrients out of the ecosystems. Research-programs in unmanaged forests in the Czech Republic and the Black Forest show, that even after old spruce stands die-off after bark beetle infestation, the essential base cautions for plant nutrition, which are mostly agglomerated in dead wood in this poor acidic soils, remain in the ecosystem. In contrast, forestry measures including the removal of bark beetle infested wood mean a loss of essential plant nutrients to the ecosystem and therefore in the long run affects the natural life- cycle in an unsustainable way.

Social and economic values

Photo: Michael Hennemann• Protected areas and Natura 2000 sites with non-intervention management (equivalent to wilderness areas) are a key ingredient in the sustainable livelihoods of local communities through a range of ecosystem services, for example, erosion control, reliable supplies of fresh water and clean air. And perhaps most importantly, they provide more widely important ecosystem services - such as carbon sequestration and flood mitigation for downstream areas - that benefit all of mankind.
• Protected areas and Natura 2000 sites with non-intervention management (equivalent to wilderness areas) are places highly appreciated for basic recreation, well-being, refuges to escape the stress of modern civilization and places where one can thrill and challenge to the meeting of wild nature on its own terms. They provide excellent opportunity for experiencing spiritual renewal.

Iconic values

Protected areas and Natura 2000 sites with non-intervention management (equivalent to wilderness areas) account for the most biologically intact, undisturbed, wild, natural and beautiful landscapes left on earth - those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with roads or other industrial infrastructure. Many areas with wilderness qualities are awarded special status - not only at a local or national level as protected areas, but also internationally, such as through UNESCO World Heritage status, European Diploma or through PAN Parks and Transboundary Park. These labels provide international reputation, enabling better connection and credibility with stakeholders – including tourists who can bring much needed income and employment.

Challenges

Ecological aspects

Photo: Vitantonio Dell'Orto / exuviaphoto.com• A non-intervention approach will focus mainly on ecosystems and large areas with the capacity for self-restoration. Such areas are likely to contain within them the diversity and dynamics to maintain a full range of habitat conditions. Non-intervention management, however, is not compatible with every type of Natura 2000 site, especially secondary habitats or small and fragmented areas. It can also cause conflicts with the conservation of species of outstanding national or international value which may now be linked to a particular management activity. It is necessary to balance and integrate the concepts. Such a balancing act can be established on a large geographical scale, such as within bio geographical regions where anthropogenic effects permit.
• Non-intervention is not possible in all cases and at all times. In areas with a strong human impact it is necessary to remove any trace of impact or at least to initiate a reversal process, before non-intervention management starts.
• Invasive (alien) species may threaten the natural protection goods (species and habitats) and disturb the natural process by driving out original species. Therefore non-native species are unwelcome in protected areas and Natura 2000 sites. Measures to eradicate them should be looked at (case by case) and the positive and negative effects must be carefully considered.

Social and political aspects

• Many local people are still wedded to the concepts of traditional management and a well-kept landscape. In the absence of appropriate information, they lack the experience and understanding of wilderness to understand relatively scientific issues such as state versus processes. For that reason public perception of large disturbances from wind, bark beetle or fire is affected negatively.
• In many EU member states national laws and regulations (e.g. forest laws) competing and overruling nature protection laws and Natura 2000 guidelines enforce the cutting of any deadwood in forests, hence the non alignment of the non-intervention management approach.