Wilderness on Wiki

Now Wikipedia is somewhat controversial because of the fact that it is open to editing by its users as opposed the rigidity of traditional editorial control of a printed encyclopedia. Nevertheless, it can lead one to many other useful resources - Here's an excerpt of the entry for Wilderness:

"Wilderness is generally defined as a natural environment on Earth that has not been modified by human activity. Ecologists consider wilderness areas to be an integral part of the planet's self-sustaining natural ecosystem (the biosphere).
The word, "wilderness", derives from the notion of wildness; in other words that which is not controllable by humans. The word's etymology is from the Old English wildeornes, which in turn derives from wildeor meaning wild beast (wild + deor = beast, deer) (The Collins English Dictionary, 2000). From this point of view, it is the wildness of a place that makes it a wilderness. The mere presence or activity of people does not disqualify an area from being "Wilderness." Many ecosystems that are, or have been, inhabited or influenced by activities of people may still be considered "wild." This way of looking at wilderness includes areas within which natural processes operate without human interference." - Full entry...

If you want to go into more detail then we can recommend the collection of resources on the 8th World Wilderness Congress website: http://www.8wwc.org/ including resolutions.