wilderness

Ecosystems, landscapes and seascapes with a very low degree of human influence, at present with full recognition that they are often inhabited and managed by people, and have been so for centuries or millennia, often at low population densities, and therefore their native biodiversity and ecological and evolutionary processes have not been reconfigured by human drivers to a significant degree. Not all areas designated as wilderness conform to this definition, especially in Europe where abandoned agricultural areas ‘managed’ by ‘wild living’ large herbivores are also called wilderness. Some wilderness areas in the world show transition to cultural landscapes with low human influence.