Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
well derive from the intrinsic intangibility of wilderness (Hall 1987, 1992a).
Nevertheless, the identification of primitive and remote areas will obviously be critical to
the protection and management of wilderness.
WILDERNESS INVENTORIES
Planners and managers now require detailed information to assist in the
identification of areas suitable for designation and protection as
wilderness, to monitor the status of the resource, and to develop
appropriate and effective management prescriptions. There is also a need
for the capacity to assess the impact on wilderness of various development
proposals so that alternatives may be examined and a suitable response
determined.
(Lesslie et al. 1988a:iv)
Definition is the major problem in the inventory of wilderness. The definition, and its
accompanying criteria, provide the source from which all else flows. Two different
conceptions of wilderness are generally recognised, one anthropocentric, the other
biocentric or ecocentric. From the anthropocentric view, wilderness is seen from a
perspective in which human needs are considered paramount. Adherents of this approach
tend to ascribe a recreational role to wilderness. In contrast, the biocentric approach
defines 'wilderness in ecological terms and [equates] wilderness quality with a relative
lack of human disturbance' (Lesslie and Taylor 1983:10).
The recreational values of wilderness have tended to be dominant in wilderness
literature (Hendee et al. 1978). This is partly the result of the 'Americanisation' of the
wilderness concept, where the predominantly recreational perspective of United States
research has coloured most other studies, but it is also probably related to the way in
which the wilderness concept has developed (R.Nash 1963; P.E.Smith 1977; Stankey
1989; Oelschlaeger 1991). Nevertheless, over recent years the biocentric concept of
wilderness has become increasingly important in research. This increased priority is most
likely related to the growth of importance of ecological research relative to recreational
research in national park and reserve management and to a recognition that fauna and
flora have an intrinsic right to exist (R.Nash 1990).
Table 7.5 demonstrates the major features of the wilderness inventories that had been
carried out in Australia up until the early 1990s, by which time the methodology for the
National Wilderness Inventory supported by the Australian Heritage Commission had
become well developed. For each inventory the study area, wilderness definition,
dimensional criteria, status of coastal areas, database and status of roadworks is recorded.
The status of roadworks criterion is included because it provides a basis of comparison
with the 'roadless area' concept which permeates American notions of wilderness and
also illustrates one of the major problems in standardising wilderness criteria (Bureau of
Land Management 1978). As Lesslie and Taylor (1983:23) observed, 'road definition is a
major point of contention in the general wilderness literature. Controversy centres on the
qualities which make a high grade road an unacceptable intrusion into wilderness and a
low grade road a detrimental but nevertheless acceptable intrusion'.
