A few Wilderness Resources for Academics

In addition to reading the International Journal of Wilderness - which:

"...links wilderness professionals, scientists, educators, environmentalists, and interested citizens worldwide with a forum for reporting and discussing wilderness ideas and events; inspirational ideas; planning, management, and allocation strategies; education; research and policy aspects of wilderness stewardship."

Select articles available courtesy of the Wilderness Task Force including:

• Support Is Building for Global Wilderness Conservation
• An Overview of the World Wilderness Congress
• Strengthening Wilderness in South Africa

You may also want to check out the Wilderness Research page (US focused) compiled by the Wilderness Institute at The University of Montana's College of Forestry and Conservation, the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center, and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute.

They have a handy index of Graduate Research related to Wilderness and here are some highlights of articles that can be found on just one subject close to our hearts:

• Wilderness Education for Youth at Risk: An Interpretive Case Study
• Set outs lessons learnt elsewhere that we are also drawing on for our Turn Around programme.
• Theoretical basis, process, and reported outcomes of Wilderness therapy as an intervention and treatment for problem behaviour in adolescents
  
• "The social importance of wilderness therapy and its emergence as an accepted treatment for more seriously troubled adolescents poses challenges and opportunities for wilderness conservation. Wilderness is being valued for more than just protected biodiversity and recreational opportunity, but also as a healing source for adolescents who are not being reached by traditional therapeutic techniques."
• Youth at Risk in Wilderness
• This paper concludes that when using Wilderness as part of an intervention programme for youth at risk, it is essential that the participants don't feel that they're mandated to take part as it leads to what the study calls 'adverse incidents' - This is of course makes complete sense - put differently, Wilderness only works on the willing and we take that into account in the core design of our Turn Around programme.

The search stretches much further - there are articles about Wilderness in Fine Arts, Folklore, Environmental Sciences, Anthropology, Archaeology, Biology and Botany. You name it.






Here in the UK we are working closely with the University of Essex, as regular readers will know. - You can still watch Jo Peacock (as more than a thousand people have done already) the lead researcher on the project talk about the conclusions reached so far:
- Get out into wilderness and boost your self esteem!: On YouTube / TeacherTube.

Wilderness and Troubled Youth

It is with interested that we heard that a wilderness approach to dealing with troubled youth is also being used in places like the Middle East - In today's Jerusalem Post:

"A form of 'wilderness therapy' and psychotherapy has brought significant improvement to Haifa teenagers suffering from violent behavior, concentration problems, anxieties and other problems caused by rocket attacks and chaotic conditions during the Second Lebanon War."

"Nitza Riklin, a Hebrew University-trained psychologist who has worked at the Health Ministry's Tirat Carmel Mental Health Center for 12 years, adapted 'wilderness therapy,' which has for years been popular for 'straightening out' troubled people in the US, Australia and elsewhere. In those countries, program participants live in primitive conditions for many days to receive therapy and to learn to cooperate." --- Read the full article.

Have a dig through our archive to learn more about this important approach.

International Rangers Federation World Congress

Today the Wilderness Foundation UK director, Jo Roberts, address the 5th IRF World Congress - this year held in Stirling.

Edited excerpt from her speech:

"By 2007 it is estimated by the UN that the world will have more urban dwellers than rural ones.

This ties in with a recent Sunday Times article that suggests that the only way to live more sustainably will be to draw most of the earth’s population into dense, urban settlement.

For those of us gathered here, people who have a deep and close connection to wild places, there may be sympathy that this development leaves wild places freer to get on with living as they know best. That less humans in wild areas the better it will be for landscape and wildlife. This is only partly true.

The other side of the coin is the creation of increasingly urbanised population of people who will have an increasingly deep detachment from Nature, from all things wild, from all sources of inspiration and healing that since the creation have been called on to rebalance society and humanity at its best and at its worst.

We know through research that urbanised communities suffer the greatest social problems from loss of community, youth at risk and crime, depression, drugs and social exclusion.

So we seem in a mess - but it means we need to work harder, in a more constructive way to keep the critical link between wilderness, wildlife and people even closer – because – taking us back to the beginning of the talk – we know that connecting to Nature creates custodians of the wild – if learning to feel part of something makes it harder to destroy.

We know that to imperil the processes of Nature and the destruction of the environment imperil our very existence.

We try at the Wilderness Foundation to tackle these issues through three main strands of work. – wilderness experience, social benefit programmes and advocacy and practical conservation. Through raise the profile of wilderness benefits we aim to promote its preservation.

Our Experiential Learning programmes take young people in particular, from mainly urban environments and facilitating a deep and meaningful experience in wilderness.
Our second main strand of work focuses on social programmes. This work involves a variety of programmes, and is potentially our busiest workload.

It gives value to wild places through the therapy that they offer society.

Our third main strand lies with advocacy and the need to fight for the protection of remaining wildlands wherever possible.

In amongst all the pragmatism, and the calculation of outcomes of wilderness experience, the monitoring and evaluation of self esteem and personal growth, their lies the age old need for resting the soul.

If we can slowly wake the world out of the imbalance that currently exists in the homocentric focus that modern day living demands, and enable people to see wild places through experience, and feel the uplifting of spirit, the soaring of our human soul, the delight of observing nature that has none of our controls making it happen, then we have hope for the future." - Read the full speech (PDF)

Resources:
- World Urbanization Prospects:The UN Population Database
- IFR Website
- Wilderness Foundation Website

Turn Around 2007

The Essex Chronicle newspaper recently carried an article entitled "Going Wild in Rehab" which focused on our TurnAround 2007 pilot programme for Essex-based youth. We are delighted to have the support of the Chronicle, which will be featuring regular updates as the programme develops.

Journalist Helen Orrell interviewed Project Manager Edward Charles, who gave readers and outline of the kinds of young people that we are seeking to work with and what we hope to achieve:
"These children are on the edge and if they don't get positive intervention quickly they could turn to drugs, alcohol abuse or even crime.

"They are perhaps children who have not made it at school - kids which don't easily fit into the school curriculum but may have some hidden talents that don't get brought out through normal schooling.

"They may be children who are at the point where they are ready to come out of foster care - but there is no real after-care programme, or they may have behavioural problems. We hope to get them interested in the environment and build enthusiasm by being out in the open air.

"They are a privileged few who are being given this as an opportunity to change their lives and they need to understand they can make a way for themselves in the world through their own efforts."

"We want to teach them an appreciation of the environment whereby we point out their old lifestyle is destructive and not the one they want to follow.

Participants in the pilot will spend nine months working through the programme, which will include a Wilderness Trail at the start to develop a bond within the team and the Life Coaches who will be supporting them and then later they will set out for South Africa to face the challenges of a Wilderness Trail in a completely new environment, supported by two trail guides.
Eddie continued:

"They will have good walking boots and good outdoor clothing, rations and stoves - all other 21st Century items are out of the window.

"It's a form of rehab or eco-therapy, getting out in the wild spaces where there are no mobile phones, no toilets or showers.

"You have to cook your own food and not see anyone else other than four or five people and the benefit of that is you connect with the environment and bond closely with your group."

Similar schemes have run in high crime areas in South Africa since 1954 and have had an 85 per cent success in keeping teenagers out of prison.

The Foundation is still seeking support from partners, volunteers and sponsors. To become a life coach or make a donation, email info@wildernessfoundation.org.uk or call 01245 443073.

Source:http://www.essexchronicle.co.uk

Ecopsychology in Practice with Mary-Jane Rust - 4th – 5th November 2006

Mary-Jane Rust, a friend of the foundation and highly respected Jungian analyst, is running a weekend workshop designed specifically for therapists who wish to incorporate ecopsychology into their practice.

"Therapy is an intensely personal process. Yet our psychological health is also affected by the bigger picture and our personal actions can affect others around the globe. Everything we buy and use, including our sources of energy, impact on the larger world around us.

Climate change, peak oil, and a litany of environmental crises are looming on the horizon. Such global change is catastrophic, but brings with it a collective awakening. If we want a future for humanity, we must all address our own unsustainble lifestyles. Engaging in this process of change brings to our attention not only how we relate to each other but also how we relate to the world around us.

While the therapy movement brings change within human relationships, ecopsychology seeks to broaden our awareness to include our relationship with the rest of life, beyond human relationships.

How does this work in practice? How are these global issues psychologically manifested? Do our clients talk about these issues? How do we respond? Do we address these wider issues together as therapists?

This week-end will be a space to start to unpack some thinking and feeling around these concerns."

Mary-Jayne is a Jungian analyst, art therapist and ecopsychologist practising in London. See http://www.mjrust.net/ for more info.

Dates: 4th- 5th November , 2006
Venue: FOXHOLE CENTRE, DARTINGTON, TOTNES, DEVON.
Price: £95 (non-residential: if accommodation is required, a B+B list can be provided. Bring a shared lunch.) Limited places, so booking is essential.
Contact: David Gillingham for further booking details, 01803 865572 (Please mention that heard about it from the Wilderness Foundation).