Wilderness survey and evaluation in Australia

Abstract

SUMMARY Increasing pressures on and interest in remote and natural lands have necessitated the formulation of wilderness protection and management policies by many Australian nature conservation authorities. Planners and managers require detailed information on variation in wilderness quality and the capacity to assess the impact on wilderness of development proposals or management strategies. To meet these demands advances have been made in techniques of wilderness identification and analysis, and a national inventory of remote and natural land in Australia has been commenced. This paper reviews these developments, discussing the newly established National Wilderness Inventory and its implications for wilderness protection in Australia.