Our blog is on the move

As part of the relaunch of our website, from today the Wilderness Foundation UK blog will have a new home:

http://www.wildernessfoundation.org.uk/

Please update your bookmarks and why not take the chance to review our new website at the same time?

For followers of our blog and all things wilderness, who are staying up-to-date using Feedburner, there is no need to change any of your subscriptions or settings - the feed from our new blog will automatically reach you. For the timebeing this blog site will remain, containing all our archived postings.

We hope you will continue to enjoy our output.

Now Recruiting: Education and Youth Programmes Officer

The Wilderness Foundation UK is pleased to announce that we are now seeking to recruit a full-time staff member, who will be responsible for managing our wilderness trails and youth programmes.

Based at our offices in Broomfield, Essex the successful applicant will be responsible for all aspects of our young environmental leaders programme - impACT; our Community Allotments Project working with young people and also the marketing and organisation of wilderness trails both in the UK and overseas. The role will involve some travel to meet with prospective programme participants, delivering presentations and briefings to participants and parents and ensuring the smooth delivery of all programmes whilst maintaining and promoting the philosophy and integrity of the Foundation.

Applicants must have excellent communication skills - both written and verbal. This will be a varied job requiring passion, commitment and attention to detail. Ideal candidates will have a passion for the environment and interest in youth work. A qualification in one or both of these areas would be advantageous.

Starting Salary: £18,000 p.a.

Initial Contract Period : 12 months to include a three month trial period

Applications to: info@wildernessfoundation.org.uk

Closing Date : 22nd August 2008

We look forward to hearing from you.

Launching Soon... the new Wilderness Foundation UK website

Have you visited our website recently? www.wildernessfoundation.org.uk brings you news and updates on all our social projects, wilderness trails programmes, trail availability, forthcoming events and everything you might possibly want to know about the WFUK team.

We will shortly be relaunching our website and at that time our blog will be incorporated into the main website. In addition to all the items of interest you are used to, we will be enhancing the blog with:

• A regular column on all things wilderness penned by our CEO, the outstanding Jo Roberts;
• The Allotment Diaries - from our new Community Allotments programme where we are inviting people to reconnect with nature and grow organic produce at the same time;
• TurnAround Participant diaries - written by the young people joining the second phase of the programme starting September 2008, plus the volunteer coaches who kindly (and freely) donate the time to work with them;
• Enhanced news of our events programme

So, visit www.wildernessfoundation.org.uk soon for all this and more.

Unfolding Earth Justice - Meeting the Needs of Our Time

We bring you news of another great workshop opportunity from our friends at Gaia:

Unfolding Earth Justice - Meeting the Needs of Our Time

With Ian Mason, Head of Law and Economics at the School of Economic Science, Director if the Earth Jurisprudence Resource Centre, and practicing barrister.

SATURDAY 7th JUNE 2008, 10 AM - 4.30 PM

£45 including a delicious seasonal, organic, vegetarian lunch.

Gaia Learning Centre, 18 Well Walk, Hampstead, London, NW3 1LD

Nearest tube, Hampstead, Northern Line

Real law is discovered, not made. What can be discovered by observing nature? How do we come to a natural way of living? Earth Justice is a search for a new philosophy of law based on reverence and respect for nature, the natural world and human dignity.

This workshop will integrate practical sessions on connecting with the natural world and learning how to learn from it. Discussion and reflection will enable participants to formulate core concepts and reach a deeper understanding of Earth Justice principles for themselves. We will consider how these principles can be translated into law and governance. The workshop will conclude with an ideas session to formulate practical initiatives for applying Earth Justice at the personal level.

For lawyers and non-lawyers alike, come and spend an inspiring day discovering the principles and origins of Earth Justice.

For more information or to book a place, please visit: http://www.gaiafoundation.org/learning/online.php or contact Guy Fisher on guy@gaianet.org or 020 7428 0055

April IJW Now Available

The April issue of the International Journal of Wilderness is now available! Renew your subscription today - and you’ll receive April’s issue within the next few weeks and the August and December issues when they arrive. The April IJW highlights El Triunfo RAVE (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition) and the continued work of our in Europe, working tirelessly to expand the wilderness concept in this region of the world. The issue is also full of great feature articles, editorials, book reviews and announcements, as is each and every issue of the IJW. Be sure to renew today!

Information Meetings on Stansted Expansion Plans

More than 40 community presentations have been lined up for the coming months by Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) to help people get to grips with proposals for a second runway at Stansted and to explain how to lodge objections.

SSE has agreed to speak at parish and town council meetings across Essex, Hertfordshire and Suffolk as part of its drive to alert local communities to the threat posed by BAA's plans, with more dates being added all the time.

Development on the scale being proposed by BAA would have far-reaching effects across the region both during the four year construction phase - which would make Stansted the biggest building site in Europe - and when fully operational.

Each meeting will feature a speaker from the SSE team, including Chairman Peter Sanders and other members of SSE's executive committee. They will draw on the airport operator’s recently submitted planning application to explain how, if it were approved, Stansted could become bigger than Heathrow today in terms of flights and passengers, plus an enormous landgrab that would entail destruction of homes, heritage, countryside and ancient woodland.

Advice will be given to those wanting to lodge their views on the plans before the cut off date of 26 June set by local planning authority, Uttlesford District Council. Thereafter, the application is expected to be the subject of a ‘call in’ for public inquiry next year and different rules for expressing views will apply.

Commenting on the programme, SSE Campaign Director Carol Barbone said:

“Yet again we’re faced with a planning application from BAA which tries to pretend that the development of Stansted would have virtually no impact on the environment or on people’s quality of life. Our presentations will help reveal the true picture.”

The SSE website contains the full list of meetings that have been planned and will be kept updated to reflect additional events as they are organized - see ‘Coming Events’ at: http://www.stopstanstedexpansion.com/events.html. Further information can also be obtained by calling the campaign office on 01279 870558 or emailing info@stopstanstedexpansion.com.

Information on accessing the planning application, with advice on how to respond, is also available on the SSE website (see link to ‘Second Runway Application – Quick Links’ www.stopstanstedexpansion.com/second_runway.html).


LIST OF MEETINGS

The meetings at which SSE will speak are largely parish and town council meetings open to the public. Details of the programme as at 8 April 2008 appear below. See website for more detail including timings and venues at: http://www.stopstanstedexpansion.com/events.html

10 April Braughing Parish Council Annual Meeting
10 April Weston Parish Council
14 April Radwinter Parish Council
16 April Birchanger Parish Council
17 April Saffron Walden Town Council - Public Meeting on Airspace Proposals
23 April Rushden and Wallington Parish Council
28 April Helions Bumpstead Parish Council
1 May Henham with Elsenham Parish Councils
8 May Hormead Parish Council
10 May Ashen Parish Council (near Sudbury)
12 May Epping Upland Parish Council
12 May High Roding Parish Council Annual Assembly
12 May Hadstock Parish Council
13 May Great Canfield Parish Council
14 May Hatfield Heath Annual Parish Meeting
15 May Redbourn Parish Council
19 May Little Bardfield Parish Council
20 May Chrishall Parish Council
21 May Sible Hedingham Public Meeting for c10 neighbouring parishes
21 May Ickleton Parish Council
22 May Chantry Community Association
2 June Brickendon Parish Council
4 June St Paul's Walden Parish Council
4 June Saffron Walden Town Council
9 June Sawbridgeworth Town Council
10 June Woolmer Green Parish Council
12 June Nazeing Parish Council
16 June Hertford Town Council
18 June Broomfield Parish Council
25 June Sheering Parish Council
26 June Great Easton (with Broxted) Parish Council
3 July Widdington Parish Council
7 July Stapleford Abbots Parish Council
8 July Willingale Parish Council
17 July Good Easter Parish Council
17 July Stanstead Abbotts Parish Council
31 July Theydon Bois Parish Council
8 September Barnston Parish Council

The Wilderness Foundation UK encourages free debate on all aspects of development which have a potential detrimental effect on both our local and global environment. The information in this article has been supplied to us by the Stop Stansted Expansion group and is presented here to you for your own evaluation. Views and comments expressed are not necessarily those of WFUK.

Africa’s Indigenous Peoples and Their Special Role in Adapting to Climate Change'

Our friends at Gaia have a packed events schedule this year with some amazing guest speakers. Here are details of a great talk coming up on 10th April 2008:

You are invited to a special evening on 'Africa’s Indigenous Peoples: Their Special Role in Adapting to Climate Change' with Dr. Nigel Crawhall, Director of the Secretariat for the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC). Please find a flyer with directions attached.

Thursday, 10th April 2008

6.30pm Drinks and buffet at Gaia House (18 Well Walk, London, NW3 1LD)

7.30pm Talk and discussion at Burgh House (Opposite Gaia House, New End Square, London NW3)

Nearest tube, Hampstead, Northern Line.

Africa’s indigenous peoples have been pushed ever further into marginal lands over the centuries. But over the last decade they have been linking up into what is becoming a movement of the indigenous peoples of Africa. They are engaged in struggles to protect the last remaining intact forests and other fragile ecosystems, which they have guarded despite external pressures. They have also been participating in United Nations initiatives to recognise the rights of indigenous peoples, challenging the dominant view that development is rooted in industrial agriculture, which, inevitably involves capital-intensive extraction of the Earth’s precious resources.

Dr. Nigel Crawhall will explain how they are helping to create new spaces for dialogue around the relationship between cultural and biological diversity. He will show how the vast and diverse pool of Africa’s cultural knowledge, practices and languages play an essential role in reviving Africa’s biodiversity. Recognising Africa’s rich knowledge and cultural heritage is a vital dimension for any strategy dealing with the challenge of increasing climate instability.

For more information or to book a place, please contact Sarah Nicholl on sarahn@gaianet.org or 02074280055.

A contribution of £10 will be appreciated

Dr. Nigel Crawhall is Director of the Secretariat for the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC), a network of 120 indigenous peoples’ organisations covering 20 African countries. He is currently Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Social Anthropology at the University of Tromso, Norway. Nigel has an MPhil in Linguistics from the University of Zimbabwe and a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.