Wildness in the Cairngorms National Park

Steve Carver

Wildland Research Institute

Outline• Background: What is wild land and why it’s important

• Can we map it?

• Developments in Europe

• Mapping wildness in the Cairngorms National Park

• Further work

The importance of wild land

• Majority of Scottish population (91%) think that it is important to have wild places (SNH, 2007)

• Significant aspect of Scotland’s natural and cultural heritage:– Wildlife and nature– Tourism and economy– Identity and culture– Ecosystem goods and services– Intrinsic value

• Needs sustainable management and protection

Wild land definition

• To protect wild land and its value we need to know where it is, so we need...– A clear and common definition:

• Acceptable to all

• Rigorous and defensible

• Spatially explicit

– Distinguish between biophysical and perceived wildness

– A robust and repeatable mapping methodology

What is wild land?• “Uninhabited and often relatively inaccessible countryside where the influence

of human activity on the character and quality of the environment has been minimal.” NPPG14 (1998)

• “There are parts of Scotland where the wild character of the landscape, its related recreational value and potential for nature are such that these areas should be safe guarded against inappropriate development or land-use change.” SNH (2002)

"Wild land in Scotland is relatively remote and inaccessible, not noticeably affected by contemporary human activity, and offers high-quality opportunities to escape from the pressures of everyday living and to find physical and spiritual refreshment.“ National Trust for Scotland (2002)http://www.nts.org.uk/conserve/downloads/wild_land_policy_2002.pdf

Attributes Main Criteria

Perceived naturalness Functioning natural habitats

Unmodified catchment systems

Lack of constructions or other artefacts No recent buildings/works

Little impact from large structures outside area

Little evidence of contemporary land uses Little effects from older remains

Only extensive grazing and field sports

Rugged or otherwise challenging terrain Striking topographic features and difficult terrain

Natural settings for recreation providing hard physical exercise and challenge

Remoteness and inaccessibility Distance from settlement and communications

Limited access either by scale of area and/or lack of easy access

Extent of area Area sufficient to engender feeling of remoteness and solitude

(After SNH, July 2002) http://www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/polstat/pd-wsc.pdf

Mapping wildness• Attributes of wildness

– Naturalness

– Remoteness

– Aesthetics and challenge

...a GIS based approach• Map all relevant attributes in GIS• Use cartographic modelling

techniques to:– Overlay map layers– Weight layers according to level of

importance– Generate output map using Multi-

criteria evaluation (MCE) methods– Explore zoning scenarios for park

management

European developments

• European Parliament resolution on wilderness:– Defining and mapping wilderness– Studying wilderness benefits– Developing an EU strategy for wilderness and promoting new

wilderness areas– Amending Birds and Habitats Directives so that wilderness

zones are given special status and stricter protection in the Natura 2000 network

– Getting Member States to set wilderness conservation as a priority in their strategy to address climate change

Mapping wildness in the Cairngorms

Wildness model

Perceived naturalness of land cover

Absence of modern human artefacts

Viewshed Explorer tool

Remoteness from mechanised access

Remoteness from mechanised access

Rugged and challenging terrain

Final wildness map #1

Final wildness map #2

Developing wild land zones

1a 1b 2a 2b Other

European mapping

National mapping

Scotland wide

Local studies

• Southern extension to Cairngorms NP

– Wildness mapping

– Zone development

• Loch Lomond and the Trossachs NP

– Wildness mapping

Any questions?

Dr Steve Carver, Director, Wildland Research InstituteEmail: s.j.carver@leeds.ac.uk, URL: http://www.wildlandresearch.org