¡Participa! Presenta tu trabajo en la International Wilderness Week

International Wilderness Week

We are excited to announce that from 19th to 23rd October 2020, the European Wilderness Society will host the first International Wilderness Week. During these five days, Wilderness advocates from around the world will celebrate Wilderness with online presentations, discussions, workshops, live excursions, reports from community events, Q&As, join-in-activities and much more!

The meaning and history of Wilderness is just as diverse as its appearance around the world. Unfortunately, Wilderness is disappearing globally at an alarming rate. The year 2020 was supposed to be important for Wilderness. The international Wilderness Conference WILD11 as well as the COP15 Conference on the UN Convention of Biological Diversity should have provided opportunities to share ideas and solutions. However, the COVID-19 crisis changed everything. Lockdowns around the world have forced the cancellation of many events or moved them online. We are making virtue of necessity and want to create a unique event that is accessible live for everyone around the world with internet access. The first International Wilderness Week is a celebration of Wilderness that creates a platform to share enthusiasm for Wilderness and to learn from Wilderness advocates in all parts of the world. It also includes a conference, where researchers, scientists and practitioners present and discuss their work and lessons learned.

The first International Wilderness Week is a one-of-a-kind event. Its virtual set up allows to address and involve all time zones and regions. The virtual space also provides easy and cheap access for everyone. Every single of the five days will be packed with a stunning 15 hours of content divided into three geographical blocks. Tune in at lunch break to hear stories from your own continent and again in the evening to learn about Wilderness from the other side of the world.

It does not stop there! During the breaks, we will present the submissions for the REWILD Institute Short Movie Festival ‘Nature’s challenges and solutions through your eyes’. Short movies (no longer than 3 minutes) will present challenges and solutions for nature around the globe. Interested to participate? Submit your video here or contact us.
Coming together for our world’s Wilderness

We know that there are people everywhere, working hard to preserve Wilderness in their homes. It is a tough mission, so the European Wilderness Society has been working from its beginning to connect Wilderness advocates in Europe and beyond. Our international projects, the Wilderness Academy Days, the Vlado Vancura Wilderness Academy, the webinar series with speakers from Asia, Africa and the European Wilderness Network were created in this spirit. The International Wilderness Week is the next step on this journey. We will have speakers and participants from all continents – maybe even Antarctica?! – who will present the beauty of their local Wilderness, shine a light on the issues they face and inspire the audience with visions for the future.

The International Wilderness Week is a celebration of the diversity of Wilderness and its advocates from all over the world. This means we need you to bring this idea to life! Present your work on Wilderness! Tell us your Wilderness story! Bring Wilderness into the virtual world! Show us your local wild area!

Submit your idea to participate as a contributor.