The Role of Management in Wilderness and Natural-area Preservation

Abstract

It is argued that, while designation (i.e. allocation) of an area to wilderness or related nature conservation purposes is an important action, it is merely a necessary but insufficient step in the long-term preservation and protection of such areas. Although one can argue that areas designated for preservation objectives require little or no management, the persistent pressures stemming from their continued use, as well as external pressures stemming from increasing (and/or increasingly mobile) human populations, make the issue of management not one of whether but rather of how.Wilderness management is an inherently difficult task. Generally low levels of information foster great uncertainly with which managers must contend. The difficulty is further promoted by the relative scarcity of the wilderness resource, and by potentially irreversible consequences stemming from decisions made in the face of uncertainty.The difficult nature of the job of wilderness management could be made less so by improvements in the following areas:1. Development of accurate baseline information about the wilderness resource and its use;2. Development of a hierarchical management framework that specified goals, objectives, and actions;3. Improved understanding of the consequences of alternative management actions;4. Resolution of the underlying philosophical basis for management; and5. Development of a broad spectrum of areas with varying levels of importance placed on Nature conservation, so that some areas are provided with relatively high levels of human presence and impact, while others are managed so as to provide the highest degree of protection to Nature and conservation values.