Le retour du débat sur la wilderness

The adoption by the European Parliament on February 3, 2009, of a resolution recommending a community wilderness policy suddenly awoke foresters to the existence of a major cultural and political development: the countries of Eastern and Central Europe have displaced the European Union’s center of gravity. “Wilderness” is not a simple and straightforward concept, even in English. The conference on untouched nature and major natural habitats held in Prague in May 2009 jointly by the European Council’s Czech Presidency and by the European Commission was set in a new context and provided an opportunity to review this issue. This article begins by describing the discussions on definitions of wilderness and its implications and then goes on to summarize the strong points of the Prague conference that opted in favour of a utilitarian, anthropocentric approach to wilderness. The European Parliament’s 2009 resolution, the establishment of the Wild Europe association with the European Commission and the Council of Europe sitting on its steering committee, the prospect of future European Union Presidencies under Eastern European countries directly concerned by large areas of wilderness undergoing pressure from economic development, and moreover, growing awareness among public opinion indicate that the place of wilderness in public policies, e.g. forest policy, is and will remain topical.