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Fruit size can act as a physical barrier providing refuge for larvae of pest Anastrepha species against parasitoid attack. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of fruit size in six fruit species infested by Anastrepha larvae on the parasitism of Diachasmimorpha longicaudata after its augmentative release. About 1500 parasitoids were weekly released in disturbed wild vegetation patches. Fruit sampling was performed at the Coastal Lowlands of the Soconusco Region, southeastern Mexico, between June 2021 and October 2022. Overall, 310 ripe fruits belonging to grapefruit, creole mamey (large-size fruits), sweet orange, creole mango, wild guava (medium-size fruits), and wild hog plum (small-size fruit) were collected. The length, frontal width, lateral width and pulp thickness of all sampled fruits were measured. Such physical characteristics are indicators of the fruit size. Fruit collection was performed 48 h after release. Results indicated an inverse correlation between fruit size and parasitism, with a significant r2 value higher than 75%. Host larvae in all fruits were parasitised only by D. longicaudata. The highest mean parasitism, which exceeded 90%, was recorded on hog plum and the lowest, below 20%, on Citrus spp. and mamey. Results corroborated the influence of host fruit size on parasitism levels by D. longicaudata regardless of its large-scale, open-field releases. Augmentative releases of D. longicaudata can be focused on wilderness areas with prevalence of medium-size to small-size Anastrepha host fruits. This would encourage long-term sustainable conservation of released parasitoid populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affect is a construct that has received substantial scholarly attention in non-representational theory and other fields. This study focuses on human-wilderness relations through a non-representational theoretical lens to reveal insights into the concept of affect. Research indicates that societal and cultural forces play an influential role in wilderness relationships. A focus is lacking on how wilderness may affectively influence, build, or sustain human – wilderness relations through emotional registers. Fifteen people participated in a study of how wilderness affect occurs in everyday life. For one week following a visit to a wilderness area, participants kept a diary and camera to take notes and photographs when certain feelings formed. The researcher augmented the diary-photograph, diary-interview method with exemplary and evocative anecdotes. The results show three ways the emergence of affect becomes perceptible. It offers an example of how affect-oriented inquiry is carried out and informs further affect-oriented outdoor recreation research. Conceptually, wilderness affect appreciates and responds to differences that emerge through relations with wild nature. The study furthers inquiry into emotional meaning making via human – wilderness relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bioethical debate about using gene drives to alter or eradicate wild populations has focused mostly on issues concerning short-term risk assessment and management, governance and oversight, and public and community engagement, but has not examined big-picture— 'where is this going?'—questions in great depth. In other areas of bioethical controversy, big-picture questions often enter the public forum via slippery slope arguments. Given the incredible potential of gene drive organisms to alter the Earth's biota, it is somewhat surprising that slippery slope arguments have not played a more prominent role in ethical and policy debates about these emerging technologies. In this article, we examine a type of slippery slope argument against using gene drives to alter or suppress wild pest populations and consider whether it has a role to play in ethical and policy debates. Although we conclude that this argument does not provide compelling reasons for banning the use of gene drives in wild pest populations, we believe that it still has value as a morally instructive cautionary narrative that can motivate scientists, ethicists, and members of the public to think more clearly about appropriate vs. inappropriate uses of gene drive technologies, the long-term and cumulative and emergent risks of using gene drives in wild populations, and steps that can be taken to manage these risks, such as protecting wilderness areas where people can enjoy life forms that have not been genetically engineered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The jaguar is listed as endangered in Mexico. However, population estimates and conservation initiatives have relied on data obtained from Protected Areas (PA) covered by humid tropical forests of southern Mexico. In this context, the objectives were: 1) to estimate jaguar density for the last wilderness ecoregion of central-western Mexico, 2) quantify the capture rate of potential prey of jaguar, 3) evaluate the percentage of native vegetation cover in the Effective Sampling Area (ESA), and 4) review the density estimates of jaguars in Mexico. Jaguar density was evaluated in an ESA of 156 km2, using 'Capture–Recapture' (C-R) and 'Spatially Explicit Capture–Recapture' (SECR) models. We obtained 28 photographic captures of two females, in which models averaged a density of 1.01 ± 0.41 ind/100 km2. The mid and large size-mammal community included 14 species with forested landscape and vegetation measured at 90%. The scientific literature includes 30 jaguar density estimates in Mexico, with 22 (85%) inside Protected Areas. Average density among all estimates in México is 2.85 ± 1.82 STD. For the first time, our density estimates provide reliable population-level data for one key region for jaguar conservation efforts in the northern hemisphere. As low-density estimates were obtained, this population is highly vulnerable, deserving priority attention by conservation strategies at a national level. RESUMEN El jaguar está en peligro de extinción en México. Sin embargo, las estimaciones de sus poblaciones y las iniciativas de conservación se han basado en datos obtenidos en Áreas Protegidas (AP) cubiertas por bosques tropicales húmedos del sur de México. En este contexto, los objetivos fueron: 1) estimar la densidad de jaguares para la última ecorregión silvestre del centro-oeste de México, 2) cuantificar la tasa de captura de presas potenciales del jaguar, 3) evaluar el porcentaje de cobertura de vegetación nativa en el Área Efectiva de Muestreo (ESA en ingles) y 4) revisar las estimaciones de densidad de jaguares en México. La densidad del jaguar se evaluó en una ESA de 156 km2, utilizando modelos de "Captura-Recaptura" (C-R) y "Captura-Recaptura Espacialmente Explícitos" (SECR en ingles). Obtuvimos 28 capturas fotográfícas de dos hembras, en las cuales los modelos promediaron una densidad de 1.01 ± 0.41 ind/100 km2. La comunidad de mamíferos de tamaño mediano y grande incluyó 14 especies con un paisaje boscoso y una cobertura vegetal de 90%. La literatura científica incluye 30 estimaciones de densidad de jaguares en México, 22 (85%) dentro de Áreas Protegidas. La densidad promedio entre todas las estimaciones en México es de 2.85 ± 1.82 ETS. Por primera vez, nuestras estimaciones de densidad proporcionan datos confiables a nivel de población para una región clave en los esfuerzos de conservación del jaguar en el hemisferio norte. Debido a la baja densidad reportada en este estudio, esta población es altamente vulnerable y merece una atención prioritaria por parte de las estrategias de conservación a nivel nacional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing popularity of nature-based tourism means that the tourism industry is increasingly utilizing wilderness areas to provide visitor experiences. However, tourism activities negatively impact wilderness quality. Tourism service providers play an important role in shaping these impacts. Therefore, this study investigates their preferences regarding wilderness use and development. It focuses on the Icelandic Central Highlands, which contain some of Europe's largest wildernesses and are an important venue for tourism. The relationship between participants' preferences and environmental attitudes is also investigated, providing insights into the reasoning behind these preferences. For this study an online questionnaire was distributed among day tour providers and travel agencies operating in Iceland. The results revealed that the attitudes of over 87% of the participants were pro-environmental. Accordingly, most tourism service providers preferred basic tourism infrastructure in the Central Highlands, and they did not support further energy or road developments. However, their attitudes toward the Central Highlands National Park proposal were divergent despite the positive relationship with environmental attitudes. Concerns about regulations and access restrictions to the area played an important role in shaping the attitudes toward the national park proposal, demonstrating the importance of considering tourism stakeholders' interests for ensuring their support for wilderness conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air tour management plans for U.S. national park units are developed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Park Service (NPS). The FAA recommends pilots fly higher than 2,000 feet above ground level (AGL) over parks, wildlife refuges, and areas with wilderness characteristics. Management of air tours is important for mitigating visual and noise impacts. Understanding air tour travel patterns has been problematic because objective location data have been difficult to obtain. A newer technology, Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS–B), can be used to accurately track overflights. Prior ADS–B studies of air tours conducted limited analysis with respect to altitude characteristics. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine how overflights spatially vary across altitudes and determine altitude trends for primary flight corridors. Results suggest overflights trend along the east side of the park and 74.59 percent of waypoints within a 0.5-mile buffer around the park boundary had altitudes less than 2,000 feet above ground level (AGL). Results revealed that as altitude increased, overflight density decreased. Using hot spot clustering analysis, overflight lateral pattern differences were determined for altitudes lower than 2,000 feet AGL compared to altitudes higher than 2,000 feet AGL. This study also identified one primary flight corridor with average altitudes mostly below 2,000 feet AGL. Managers can use these results to inform the development of air tour management plans and monitor compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Western Regional Air Partnership (WRAP) has developed a modeling platform to simulate the formation of haze-causing particles that impact federally-protected lands in the western United States. To assist state air quality planners in determining which emission sources are likely candidates for future mitigation, several source apportionment scenarios were evaluated, and two sets of results for the year 2028 are presented here: 1) a "high-level important regional sources" version, with broad emission categories (i.e. U.S. anthropogenic, international anthropogenic, natural, and fires), and 2) a "low-level anthropogenic emission sources within individual states" version, which refines the U.S. anthropogenic contribution to specific emission sectors within individual WRAP region states. Eight examples are discussed, which reflect the variation in source apportionment results at national parks, wilderness areas, and wildlife refuges in the western U.S. and suggest which emission sectors are candidates for mitigation to improve future visibility. In 2028, the contribution of domestic anthropogenic emissions at the eight sites ranges from 17% to 58%, with significant impacts from oil and gas production, fossil fuel electric generation, and federally-regulated mobile sources. The contribution from international anthropogenic sources can also be considerable, and ranges from 17% to 43%. Most sectors that are emitting sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), which are the two most likely particle precursors to be curtailed in the states' Regional Haze plans, are declining. For example, in the 13 contiguous WRAP region states, NOx emissions from on-road mobile sources and electric generating units (EGUs) declined by 738 kton/yr (29% decrease) and 65 kton/yr (31% decrease), respectively, in 2028 as compared to current emission estimates, and SO2 emissions from EGUs declined by 42 kton/yr (29% decrease). NOx emissions from oil and gas development also declined by 25 kton/yr (9% decrease) but rose for SO2 emissions by 12 kton/yr (20% increase). Implications: The goal of the Regional Haze Rule (RHR) is to improve visibility at federally-protected areas, and to eventually arrive at natural conditions by the year 2064. Source apportionment tools within regional air quality models are useful for identifying which emission regions and sectors are contributing to haze-causing particles and can indicate to air quality planners where additional emission controls may be warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wilderness is an important resource for tourism but it is very sensitive to overuse. In order to maintain their attraction, wilderness destinations need to be planned and managed carefully. For that purpose, several models have been developed, one of which is the so-called purism scale model. It is used for segmenting visitors based on their preferences and attitudes towards wilderness destinations. Visitors are asked to rank particular items relating to the management and qualities of wilderness areas along a purism scale and are given a score describing their attitudes. A few studies have used quantitative methods with the aim of improving purism scales. The novelty of this study is adopting a qualitative approach to explore the practicality of purism scales for managing wilderness destinations. It is based on semi-structured interviews in a wilderness area in Iceland, Landmannalaugar, with the aim of investigating the reasoning that visitors have for ranking purism items. The results highlight which purism items are useful to divide visitors into different segments and which ones are not. The study identifies several aspects which question the practicality of purism scales, including differences in the perceived meaning of items and the perspective adopted when ranking the items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wilderness is an important concept in the discourses and policies concerning contemporary European protected areas, inherently challenging in terms of sustainability. Since its designation in 1992, the Val Grande National Park, located in northwest Italy, has been portrayed and promoted as a wilderness area, thereby enhancing tourism, whilst disregarding the historical signs of human activity. In this paper we explore the wilderness concept, focusing on the narratives developed in the area, that changed from a strict conservationist approach to a more utilitarian one, influencing the National Park's policy-making. The research is based mainly on the content analysis of several literary texts. We conclude that wildernessneeds to be reconceptualized so that contemporary European protection policies might become more effective, and we may use our knowledge of nature to promote sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across much of southern Africa's savanna wildernesses, wildfires burn unchecked. This is particularly true in the woodland savannas of northern Botswana, where wildfires originate outside of management activities, and are left to burn uncontrolled, because of limited resources and remoteness. There is concern that severe annual wildfires are resulting in the 'savannisation' of large tracts of wooded land across forest reserves, protected areas and surrounding wilderness areas. Because the current fire regime is unknown, management interventions are hard to introduce. We examine the recent 20-year (2001–2020) fire history in northern Botswana using MODIS satellitederived fire products to reveal fire frequency and seasonality. Six wildfire hotspots are identified for exploration of fire frequency and possible origins. Annual fire frequencies are far higher than would be expected without anthropogenic ignition. Extensive areas in some hotspots are shown to have burned between 14 and 16 out of the 20-year period. Fires peak in September, several weeks before the onset of the rainy season and associated lightning strikes, and when the fuel load is at its maximum and conditions at their driest. Adaptive fire management practices, such as those being followed in neighbouring South Africa and elsewhere should inform Botswana's fire management policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecological vulnerability of global protected areas (PAs) is linked to the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We developed a novel degree of ecological vulnerability (DEV) index based on Big Earth Data to assess the ecological vulnerability of PAs. This is a transparent, repeatable, large-scale and rapid assessment method. We applied the method to case studies of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) PAs in the basins of the Aral Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea and the Lake Baikal. Between 2001 and 2015, the spatial pattern of ecological vulnerability in the study area was relatively stable. The Caspian Sea basin and protected landscape/seascape (category V) showed high ecological vulnerability, while the Black Sea basin and wilderness areas (category Ib) showed low ecological vulnerability. Big Earth Data shows great vitality in PAs ecological vulnerability assessment. Strengthening international cooperation is an important means to break the bottleneck of ecological environment and resource endowment in these important international basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In forms of physical recreation associated with ‘wilderness experiences’, such as backcountry hiking or mountain climbing, technology is omnipresent. As a result, some may wonder whether genuine wilderness experiences are possible. In this essay, I argue that wilderness experiences are possible and that they can be enhanced through games. That is, I contend there are often physically challenging aspects to wilderness experiences that certain games can help to promote. This analysis will stress the fact that Bernard Suits delineated two comparable but distinct ways to engage in games. Following Suits’s logic, I explain how ‘literal skills’ like walking or climbing can function as the ‘constitutive skills’ of games. I then consider how games predicated on ‘literal skills’ can help promote the meanings available in wilderness experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses lessons that human resources development (HRD) can learn from the legacies of authors J M. Barrie and John Muir. Barrie will be remembered as the creator of Peter Pan and used creativity to construct and reconstruct reality as something dynamic and constantly in a state of motion. Muir dedicated his life to advocating for the preservation of wilderness across the U.S. and believes in the restorative power of nature as an antidote to poor mental health.

The article focuses on Sacro Bosco at Bomarzo among the conventional typologies of landscape architecture and Vicino Orsini's preferred name for his creation and utilitarian associations. It mentions garden proper, giardino, lay on opposite end of the notional scale of wilderness and cultivation and agricultural property as exemplified by dividing hedges, irrigation ditches, and planting beds. It also mentions evocation of Christian monasticism, the Bosco Parrasio on the Janiculum Hill in Rome.

In critical evaluations of what is commonly termed 'Scandinavian Gothic', the geographic landscape figures prominently, and it is often claimed to almost act as a living presence. Taking this notion as a point of departure, this paper analyses the portrayal of the Arctic wilderness – with its vast and icy sceneries – in Tommy Wirkola's Dead Snow (2009). In a regionalised twist on a now common Gothic horror narrative, the film focuses on a group of friends who decide to take a skiing holiday in a snow cabin in Norway, only to be attacked by a group of zombie Nazi soldiers, who lurk in the icy corners of the landscape. My analysis centres on the evaluation of Arctic wilderness as a point of focalisation, where notions of space, haunting, and characterisation mix with Gothicised interpretations of collective memory, Norwegian folklore, and the cultural hauntings of history. As snow mixes with blood – at times, quite literally – intermediated understandings of past and present blend, as do representations of uncanny experiences of deconstructed identities through time. Ultimately, I aim to provide a critical evaluation of 'Arctic Gothic', a cinematic and critical space where cultural practices, bodily horror, spectral memories, and the vastness of the Arctic landscape collide, blend, and merge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation organizations undertaking ecological restoration and the lands they manage constitute a social-ecological system (SES). We implemented SES analysis to examine the relationship between diversity in organizational structure and restoration planning processes, and vegetation outcomes on the ground. Understanding the restoration consequences of multiple approaches to planning and implementation is relevant to assessing the resilience of this SES, especially if disagreements about the effectiveness of some approaches lead to conflict in the socio-political arena. We studied 10 conservation organizations in the Chicago Wilderness region that are restoring Midwestern oak woodlands of global conservation concern. Despite the institutional diversity of these organizations, we found little relationship between restoration planning and vegetation outcomes. This result has implications for the resilience of restoration as an SES, since similar outcomes from diverse processes should increase resilience of this SES, especially when controversial restoration practices are employed, and when priorities and funding levels change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intersects two areas of human geography research: therapeutic landscapes and literary geography. Using Þórbergur Þórðarson's The Stones Speak (2012) as a case study, the paper explores the mixing of the rural environment and the wilderness in a farming community in Iceland at the turn of the twentieth century, as well as the health-related properties of this space. The built environment can function as a site of physical and social health, while the wilderness provides emotional healing and normalcy for the physically sick. Though elements can be recognized separately, this paper highlights how local people experience both wilderness and rural elements as one landscape, as well as how human activity shapes the landscape and its inhabitants's sense of place. Literary geography limits the study to a single cultural context, thus more study is needed to articulate the intersection of rural and wilderness space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sulfide-ore copper nickel (SOCN) mining is being considered in water-rich Minnesota. Given pollution resulting from SOCN mining elsewhere, careful scrutiny is necessary examining the risks associated. Health considerations of mining within the Rainy River Watershed, the geographic region at the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), Ontario's Quetico Park (Quetico), and Voyageurs National Park (VNP) are examined. This discussion considers toxins released from SOCN mining, examines data regarding degradation of water quality and deleterious environmental impact from SOCN mining elsewhere, considers the most vulnerable populations, and recognizes the broader effects to public health as well as benefits of existing wilderness. Recent federal decisions to reinstate mineral leases and abort the environmental assessment process have placed this unique and irreplaceable region of our country at substantial risk. The overall health and wellness of this region will very likely be negatively affected by SOCN mining, and economic costs will predictably outweigh benefits. In addition, negative impacts on water, fish and wild rice will likely degrade nutritional and tribal resources resulting in violation of usufructuary rights of tribal communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In De Bello Gallico, Gaius Julius Caesar describes the various campaigns waged by the Romans under his leadership against the 'Gauls' and the geography, wildlife, and the various tribes of the lands he observed during his time in 'Gallia'. Caesar remarks in one passage in chapters 26–28 of book 6 on the large mammals of an area of wilderness known to him as 'Hercynia Silva,' the Hercynian Forest. This passage, analyzed previously by several authors who identified the animals Caesar described and compared his descriptions with those of several mythological creatures, allows for a unique glimpse into the large mammal fauna of Germany of ~ 2000 years ago, as the mammals Caesar mentions include several species either locally extirpated from Germany or extinct altogether. Here, I review these descriptions and prior analyses of their meaning to compile a faunal list of the Hercynian forest megafauna from the Classical period. Additionally, I briefly statistically compare this faunal to several from Pleistocene Germany. These comparisons serve to both demonstrate changes in the megafauna of Europe during the late Quaternary and the use of classical sources in paleobiogeography and paleoecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers how food and eating offers a lens through which we can use the chimerical nether world to understand collective, concrete, and cultural ideas. It mentions wilderness had long been understood as a subcategory of "nature," one in which the unaffected environment held extreme promises. It also mentions connection between hell and wilderness-as-chaos remained in the American protestant psyche and food can play an important role in the cultural construction of hell.

Rewilding, though a young term, already has numerous meanings. We use Q-methodology to investigate understandings and practices of rewilding amongst managers of wildland on 17 estates in the Scottish uplands. The estates, covering 207,200 ha, include all the main land ownership types in Scotland. All respondents value wildness and biodiversity highly, but the Q-study reveals significant divergence in the interpretations and practices of rewilding, especially concerning (i) the value of naturalness, (ii) the use of management interventions, (iii) the value of cultural heritage and traditional land uses, and (iv) the place of people within wildland. A tripartite taxonomy of wildland management approaches is developed, identifying three 'centres of gravity' along the continuum of viewpoints, emphasising, respectively, nature's autonomy, active restoration, and the maintenance of wildness within cultural landscapes. The taxonomy provides an analytic framework for evaluating the diverse and often conflicting aspirations for the management of wild places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lakes and ponds are important ecosystem components in arctic lowlands, and they are prone to rapid changes in surface area by thermokarst expansion and by sudden lake drainage. The 30 m resolution Landsat record (1984–2018) was used to derive a record of changes in the area of lakes and ponds in the five National Parks of northern Alaska. Surface-water area declined significantly in portions of the study area with ice-rich permafros t and water bodies of thermokarst origin. These declines were associated with rapid lake drainage events resulting from the thermoerosion of outlets. Thermoerosion was probably favored by the record warm mean annual temperatures in the study area, combined with precipitation that fluctuated near long-term normals. The rate of lake loss by rapid drainage was greatest in 2005–2007 and 2018. In landscapes with permafrost of lower ice content and water bodies in depressions of non-thermokarst origin, surface-water area generally fluctuated in response to year-to-year changes in precipitation, without a long-term trend, and lake drainage events were rare. Loss of surface water in ice-rich lowlands is likely to continue as the climate warms, with associated impacts on aquatic wildlife. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One problem of contemporary education is that it tends to be overly specialized. Ideally, education, as opposed to mere training, should develop broad personal competence. Some educational programs promote this whole person competence more than others. Amongst physical activities the art of wilderness travel unites a wide variety of skills and knowledge. It can be seen as a paradigm of an art which unifies the many goals of outdoor education. In this paper wilderness travel is described as an art, its features are examined, and its general lessons described. "Wilderness Travel" symbolizes not only the actual art of travel through the wilderness, but also the way in which such journeys can teach us important lessons about daily life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Park Service represents the nation's largest initiative in landscape conservation and preservation. As both a material and cultural construct, national parks are living memorials to a uniquely American wilderness narrative. In celebration of the National Park Service Centennial, American Wild is a speculative proposal for digital landscape preservation. The project generates civic pride by connecting the distinctive architecture of the Washington, DC Metro to the national parks. Using ultra-high-definition recordings, videos of each park are individually projection-mapped at full scale. The memorial creates a timeline of the National Park Service's 100-year history that advocates for its next centennial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on reform of Spanish understanding and unusual and heterodox when set alongside the great classical forms of knowledge. It mentions Spain anguished voices cried in the wilderness and terrible and almost unbearable shame because of the actions of certain social classes and groups. It also mentions cultural methods will survive the great catastrophe and contact between Spanish and European philosophical thought.

Geospatial data and tools are key in locating lost or missing persons in as short a time as possible. In this study, we used a geographic information system (GIS) to analyze four years of search and rescue (SAR) mission data from Colorado to determine the appropriate use of GIS for volunteer-based SAR organizations with limited resources and GIS expertise. GIS can provide more sophisticated analyses of geospatial data than simple mapping technologies, but our findings indicated that complex spatial analysis might not be required on all missions, because the majority of missions were completed within six to ten hours. Instead, new technologies such as tablets with mapping software and online GIS systems that provide quick and easy access to up-to-date geospatial data such as imagery offer capabilities that could improve mission planning. Here we provide a framework in which SAR missions can apply geospatial technologies to aid with missions, identify critical “hotspots,” and enhance postanalysis and training. The work here is highly applicable for nonprofit SAR groups when deciding on what GIS technologies to consider for their areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on a two-day creative workshop at Knepp Castle Estate in October 2017. Knepp is the location of a large-scale "rewilding" project established in 2002, which uses free-roaming herbivores to cultivate habitat change and restore natural processes. Using collaborative performance-making strategies, participants attempted to respond and contribute to the complex ecology of the site, exploring the potential for productive exchanges between human and nonhuman actors. The article focusses on a series of "wild performatives" that occurred during the event. Considering three possible applications of this concept, it investigates a range of affective encounters with ecologies, performances, and conceptualizations of rewilding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses pluralistic understandings of wilderness in the context of wilderness therapy (WT). The term wilderness perpetuates a modern worldview of place that beyond ‘civilisation’ exists an environment defined by risk, fear and an unpredictable nature. WT utilises outdoor travel and living practices during therapeutic intervention and health promotion although empirical justification for its use of wilderness for therapy is not yet established. This paper provides three cultural perspectives on wild places in relation to WT. These national perspectives are informed by local practices, historical and societal understandings of wilderness and supported by related literature from Canada, Norway and Australia. The authors (1) illustrate a number of contemporary western assumptions about wilderness enshrined in the WT and outdoor adventure literature, (2) cautiously propose core purposes for using wild places for therapy and (3) encourage further development of WT practice and research within national, regional and even across organisational contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The acceptance and support by those who live in and around the largest remaining wilderness of Europe is very important for the success of a planned network of designated wilderness areas that should preserve the area's wilderness values. A standardised questionnaire was administered in person to 322 local residents. A cluster analysis revealed two human-nature relationship types: traditional nature users and progressive nature friends, which differ significantly in their feelings towards wilderness and attitude towards protected areas. The generally positive attitudes towards wilderness and the neutral attitudes towards the existing protected areas are a good starting point for communication about, and establishment of, the wilderness areas. As a quarter of the local population is not aware that they are living in a protected area, they should be informed during information events in the localities about the exact location of the planned wilderness zones and the potential consequences for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around the turn of the century, myriad books and articles – from academics, journalists, organizational leaders and grassroots activists – explored the state of American environmentalism, outlining ideological antagonisms and tracing the contours of possible twenty-first century trajectories. In recent years, however, there have been few such analyses, and those that do exist continue to rely on the ideal types of the past. This article explores the shifting ideological contours of American environmentalism by (1) detailing how extant works categorize American environmental ideologies, and (2) employing discourse and content analysis of sixteen American environmental organizations to consider whether existing ideal-types capture the ideological variability driving contemporary environmental practice. It concludes by outlining six twenty-first century American environmental ideal-types: wilderness preservationism; liberal environmentalism; traditional environmental justice; techno-ecological optimism; socio-ecological progressivism; and socio-ecological radicalism. The article argues that the latter three ideological variants signal an ontological shift that cuts to the core of environmental practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Why would a consumer trust that his/her supplier would honor their agreement in illegal transactions? What mechanisms do consumers rely on to enhance the credibility of their agreements? In this article, these questions are examined in the light of illegal transactions of protected wildlife in China for consumption as a delicacy. Based on interviews with actors involved in this illegal market and open sources, this article shows that consumers rely on the supplier’s reputation to access protected wildlife, along with their reputation of having the culinary skills necessary to cook the wildlife in order to enhance the credibility of their agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the tourism studies literature, wilderness has been addressed from two perspectives. From the first, human, perspective wilderness is a social, subjective construction that exists only in the mind of its users. From the second, ecological, perspective it is a material, objective reality. Here, we compare these two perspectives based on data collected in one of Poland's most popular nature-based destinations, The Great Masurian Lakes region, and develop a methodological framework which would operationalise this comparison and make it measurable. The research approach combined a survey of tourists and mapping of natural features. The data was analysed, first, to verify whether stated preferences regarding nature and the natural features surrounding tourist accommodation were coherent; this resulted in the construction of a Coherence Index (CI). Second, we analysed how stated preferences with respect to nature were linked to outdoor recreational activities; this was measured by a Nature Cruciality Index (NCI). Finally, both indexes were mapped and their spatial distributions were analysed. The findings showed that the subjective, social construction of wilderness does not always correspond to objective reality. Although tourists declared natural environment to be very important to them, in some cases the analysis found a lack of consistency between expressed preferences and the natural features found around accommodation. The phenomenon was mainly found in towns, where tourists were most nature-indifferent. Moreover, they were not interested in activities with high NCI. In some cases, however, the two perspectives were coherent, especially among nature-oriented tourists who stayed near lakes and those who stayed in villages (who were most conscious of their choices). Tourists who stayed near lakes undertook the most nature-crucial activities. These findings can be used to enhance local planning, management and marketing strategies for nature tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article argues that one can analyze revolutions as ritual passages, as spatial and temporal liminality. In most Arab countries that experienced radical upheavals and revolutionary dynamics during and after 2011, people may feel ‘stuck in liminality.’ The aftermath of revolutions is what Arnold van Gennep termed the phase of re-aggregation and which Victor Turner also described as redress. Even in those states where institutional arrangements on the surface have been recomposed, perpetual crises seem everywhere. This situation characterizes a number of post-upheavals in the world. In this article, I draw on examples in Arab countries to reflect on how the current ends of revolution can be understood as perpetual liminality, and what it would take to exit liminality. I stress that legal and judicial processes are formalized and ritualized means toward re-aggregation, which have to go along with a cooling down of emotions and a taming of violence at the social level. This requires transforming the categories of ‘friends’ and ‘enemies’ of a revolution and adopting the language of ‘ordinary politics’ to replace revolutionary language. The re-aggregation process, however, is complicated by the fact that new regimes gain their legitimacy from available symbols of the revolution itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between place attachment and resistance during participatory planning of the Sengwe Tshipise Wilderness Corridor, located in southeast Zimbabwe, a region that falls within the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area. Field research was conducted from July to December 2013 using 69 semistructured interviews, seven focus-group discussions, and analysis of secondary data. By following the dominant narratives articulated by villagers affected by this Corridor, we illustrate the multiple ways in which place attachment becomes part of everyday politics of resistance. Results show that a strong place-based identity is at the center of narratives deployed by villagers displaced by war, conservation, and veterinary fencing restrictions. Through deploying this place-based identity, communities collectively influenced both the spatial extent of the corridor and institutional governance arrangements. This article contributes to debates on the role of community agency in the implementation of transfrontier conservation areas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the public dialogues used in the wilderness designation effort on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington state, USA, to either support or negate the designation. Conflict in the concept of wilderness sprouts from incompatible philosophies of broader human-nature relationships. The concept of “wilderness” in the USA, as embedded in the 1964 Wilderness Act, reflects how the pro-designation community interprets humankind’s relationship to nature and the physical landscapes protected under the Wilderness Act are managed to reflect that community's’ understanding of nature. Conflicts arise when other communities perceive their own understandings of nature to be threatened by the concept of wilderness and the constraints it places on activities in the protected area. Using this case study of Wilderness Area designation on the Olympic Peninsula, this paper demonstrates how different sides of a conflict over wilderness legislation use cultural narratives to dominate the public dialogues surrounding wilderness. Actors in the debate seek to create a story of powerlessness and use this as a tool to legitimize their claim that nature and heritage are at risk. The case study is placed within the broader literature on political ecology and the complex role wilderness plays in American identity and heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wilderness attracts tourists and generates visitor spending in proximate communities as people enjoy Wilderness for outdoor recreation. Wilderness also attracts amenity migrants and out-of-region investments into surrounding regional economies. To investigate the amount and types of employment and income generated by Wilderness visitation, we conducted an economic contribution analysis of aggregate national visitor expenditures. The U.S. Forest Service National Visitor Use and Monitoring (NVUM) economic spending profiles were used to construct types and amounts of Wilderness visitor spending and were applied to an estimated 9.9 million annual visitors across federal agencies. IMPLAN modeling software was used to estimate total effects and multipliers for output, employment, income, and value added. Results show that some $500 million is annually spent in communities adjacent to Wilderness, generating a direct effect of 5,700 jobs and a total output effect over $700 million across numerous industries ($2012 including indirect and induced effects). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tourism industry is a growing economic sector that utilizes wilderness environments and has become an important stakeholder in terms of defining the use and management of wilderness areas. Governing and managing the wilderness is a forum for conflict between various stakeholders, land use and meanings attached to wilderness. This paper discusses the utilization and perceptions of wilderness environments in Iceland, where tourism and power production have increasingly grown. The research focuses on the challenges created by the changing ideas about natural resources in the Icelandic Highlands, with an emphasis on the perspectives of visiting tourists. Based on the on-site interviews, the paper analyzes what kind of experiences tourists value in the Highlands and what kind of impact power production developments would have on their experiences. The study indicates that despite the fact that human influence in the Highlands has been substantial due to tourism and past power plant developments, visitors still consider the main attraction of the Highlands to be its wilderness character. The majority of visitors are against power plants and consider that those elements would reduce the quality of the wilderness experience. This social construction of the wilderness in Iceland reflects how wilderness is rather a subjective idea than reality. This idea is furthermore sustained by the tourists themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying ecocritical life writing shows how travel into the wilderness can be therapeutic to the self during periods of malaise and alienation. Jon Krakauer's biography,Into the Wild(1996), explores the life, death and psyche of Christopher McCandless who seems to deliberately lose himself in the Alaskan bush, succumbing to a death by starvation that is strangely triumphant. Krakauer as biographer romanticises McCandless's experience in a manner that imagines and projects his life and death in an idealistic light. In her memoir,Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail(2012), Cheryl Strayed describes how a deep depression prompts her to hike the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). Alone and inexperienced, Strayed struggles to survive, and her feminist narrative records how hiking the PCT helps her to regain her emotional footing and redefine her identity. Emotionally estranged from others and at critical junctures in their respective lives, the two explorers seek meaning on the path less travelled. The concept of the wilderness as a recuperative force is offset by the extent to which it is depicted as life threatening: interpretations of McCandless's and Strayed's respective journeys range from admiration for their independent spirits to condemnation for solipsistic stupidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of Canada's protected areas mirrored their development throughout the New World, using an exclusionary model of conservation reflecting the hegemonic nature/culture dichotomy. There has been increasing criticism of the colonial and postcolonial impacts resulting from this exclusionary model: new concepts developed to better link Indigenous peoples and conservation lands (e.g. cultural landscapes, socio-ecological systems, resilience and bio-cultural conservation) have thus been developed. But the existing paradigms and dichotomies that buttress the exclusionary model – including a linear, static view of nature, a deep seated discourse equating human presence with ecosystem destruction, the concept of wilderness, differing concepts of recreation/work and the nature/culture split – have proved more difficult to supplant that anticipated, and have restricted progress in moving these new concepts from theory to practice. This paper reviews these concepts and barriers and buttresses these theoretical critiques with practical insights from a study in a co-managed park in the Yukon Territory, Canada. The existing role of outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism in protected areas is a particular focus in examining the barriers to developing new conservation discourses which allow for a more meaningful engagement from Indigenous peoples. A pyramid of potential changes is suggested to encourage future incremental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The “new nature writing” has been seen as a response, especially in the United Kingdom, to the growing sense that earlier paradigms of nature and nature writing are no longer applicable to current geographical and environmental conditions. At the same time, some writers who have been associated with the “new nature writing” dislike the term, criticizing it for its residual parochialism, its continuing class and gender biases, and its paradoxical adherence to the very categories – particularly wildness – it wishes to confront. This article does not set out to dismiss the “new nature writing” or to assess which writers might be the best fit with it; instead, it looks at its indebtedness to the earlier literary and cultural traditions it claims to interrogate and deconstruct. This debt is often expressed in terms of belatedness, whether acknowledged or not, in relation to earlier notions of wilderness and wildness – inherently slippery categories that multiply and ramify in the “new nature writing,” which has neither managed to dissociate itself from wildness nor to redefine it for our ecologically troubled times. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Contact with nature is vital for the development of children and teenagers. In the past, informal urban green spaces (IGS) such as vacant lots appear to have been used for such purposes. We need to better understand how previous generations used IGS to make sure young people today can also enjoy its social, mental, emotional and physical health benefits. This study quantitatively compared adult residents' memories of IGS use in their childhood and teenage years in two geographically and culturally distinct cities: Brisbane, Australia, and Sapporo, Japan. The results showed most respondents (>70%) remembered using IGS in the past, and preferred it over other green space because it was easily accessible. Most (>70%) recalled experiencing no problems (e.g. danger of injury) when using IGS, a contrast to recently increasing parental concern for children's safety. Such factors may limit present IGS use and prevent it from fulfilling the important role it played for previous generations' recreation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For many people today, the idea of wilderness conjures up meanings and images referring to wild, remote, and untrammeled natural areas, which need protection from human presence and utilization. Institutionally, the first Wilderness Act was prescribed in the United States over 50 years ago and the wilderness conservation originates from the establishment of the first national parks in North America in the nineteenth century. First conservation and wilderness areas and related legal acts provided a model on how to organize and manage conservation areas globally. However, this created ‘fortress’ model of global conservation thinking, separating wilderness, and nature from culture and people, has recently been increasingly challenged by views calling for more people-centered approaches in natural resource management. In addition, the tourism industry has become an increasingly important user and socioeconomic element of change in wilderness areas, which has created new kinds of utilization needs for the remaining wild environments. Thus, there are different ways to understand what wilderness is and for and from whom we are protecting those areas. This paper aims to overview some of the key perspectives on how wilderness environment are contextualized, used, and contested: as units of strict conservation; resources for livelihoods and raw materials, and/or tourist products. The purpose is to point out that while we have different and often conflicting understandings of what wilderness is and what it is for, there are also potentially symbiotic relations between different views which could help us to protect the remaining wilderness areas. This is the case especially in the Global South, where the sociopolitical pressures of economic utilization of the remaining wilderness environments are currently the sharpest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing numbers of retirees seek individual, extended, unstructured activities in remote, non-commercial locations. Travel is predominantly by self-drive 4WD vehicle towing a caravan/campervan. These ‘grey nomads’ often prefer remote bush camping sites/caravan parks to commercial resorts. The tropics – a popular destination – are inhabited by Australia's only large semi-terrestrial carnivore, the estuarine crocodileCrocodylus porosus.Conservation programmes of recent decades have resulted in a substantial increase in numbers. With naive grey nomads increasingly encroaching on crocodile territory, attacks are expected to increase. Review of conservation programmes to incorporate awareness education targeting grey nomads is therefore required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of prior empirical research examining poachers and poaching strategies have originated from interviews with poachers and wildlife law enforcement officers within North American settings. Few studies have empirically analyzed poacher categories and poaching strategies within an African context. Furthermore, most studies have overlooked important situational elements that influence poacher activities. Based on semi-structured interviews and informal conversations with law enforcement rangers and supervisors and, participant observations of routine day foot patrols, this study presents the findings of an exploratory analysis on poaching in a protected area in Uganda. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite the increasing number of protected areas around the world and their importance in the conservation of species and ecosystems, protected areas management capacity remains difficult to evaluate. A standard is needed to help policy makers compare the goals with the results obtained. This empirical research builds a tool to analyze the management efficiency and predicts the new touristic outcomes in case of a policy change. Using as example the state parks agencies in the USA, this paper develops a technological frontier using data envelopment analysis based on the Protected Areas Management Approach. After that, a prediction of the outcomes is analyzed with a budget change for any state park agency. Data suggest that many of them need to improve their performance to be more efficient. Another result obtained shows how budget changes will affect each agency's performance in different degrees and, therefore, budget reductions should be modeled separately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, a wilderness area on the US-Mexico border in Arizona, conflicting policies permit the provision of supplementary water for wildlife but not for undocumented immigrants passing through the area. Federal refuge environmental policy prioritizes active management of endangered and threatened species. Vast systems of water resources have been developed to support wildlife conservation in this extremely hot and dry environment. At the same time, humanitarian groups are not allowed to supply water to undocumented border-crossers in the park. Human border-crossers must utilize nonpotable wildlife water “guzzlers” for survival and face a real risk of illness or death by dehydration. This article analyzes human rights via an ethnographic lens. From this perspective, water policy at the wildlife refuge brings into question the value of human life in a border conservation context, especially for those entering the site “illegally.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is 30 years since the Australian environmental movement enlisted the term "wilderness" to protect Tasmania's remote Franklin River from hydroelectric development. Environmentalists deployed "wilderness" strategically during the conflict to build public support for their no-dam campaign, aided by national and international media who used the term liberally, while Tasmanian news media and pro-development elites acknowledged the term's inherent political qualities by suppressing its use. Our interest is in the political and media framing of "wilderness" since the concept was "branded" by government and industry at the turn of the twenty-first century. Drawing on continuing environmental conflict over Tasmania's remote Tarkine region as a case study, we ask to what extent media portrayals of "wilderness" have changed since the Franklin dam was stopped and the Tasmanian World Heritage Wilderness Area was created in 1982. Using content analysis of related articles in the local media and qualitative analysis of international travel journalism about Tasmania published over an extended period, we find that place branding has contributed to the routinization of "wilderness" and to a shift in the focus of mediated conflict from "wilderness" to "tourism." The Tasmanian experience demonstrates that while the actions of the environmental movement can valorize place, branding can depoliticize contested natural areas. Yet brands that incorporate or allude to "wilderness" may have the unanticipated consequence of valorizing "wilderness" transnationally, in a manner that the environmental movement would struggle to emulate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]