The wilderness as such is rated positively by the general population and experts from nature conservation, administration, tourism, hunting and forestry, as the environmental organization Pro Natura announced on Thursday based on a survey. It published the results of “World Wilderness Day” on Saturday.
The majority understand wilderness as large areas with wild animals and fallen trees without human influence. As Pro Natura writes, there are hardly any primeval landscapes like this in Switzerland and Central Europe. For example, Switzerland lost 90 percent of its moors in the last 200 years.
However, the wilderness can also return to previously intensively used landscapes. The acceptance of the renaturation of forests, bodies of water, moors and mountain areas has increased in recent years, as a comparison between Pro Natura and a survey from 2002 shows.
The positive assessment of the wilderness is accompanied by the demand for more natural areas. According to the survey, this concern is particularly widespread among experts. In the broader population, 95 percent find a great diversity of species important and almost 90 percent find pristine nature.
As part of its three-year wilderness campaign, Pro Natura surveyed around 1200 private individuals and 1100 experts on the subject.