Wilderness is a complex and difficult-to-define concept, but it is generally understood to be a landscape that is largely untrammeled by human infrastructure. Lowveld Trails Co. defines Wilderness as an ecologically intact landscape with associated wild qualities that is largely untrammelled by modern human infrastructure.
Wilderness areas are important for maintaining functional biodiversity and large-scale ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration. They additionally offer resilience against climate change and pandemics, and provide a baseline for current and future man-made environmental impact. However, Wilderness areas not only maintain conditions for life, but the human spirit depends on them too. Wilderness areas are often seen as having intrinsic value, providing humans with non-ordinary wild experiences that are profoundly significant and difficult to wholly describe.
The progressive loss of direct human-nature interaction in wild places has become known as the ‘extinction of experience’. The removal of humans from their natural habitat (and loss of Wilderness) not only negatively impacts our well-being, but compromises any efforts made towards conservation.
Primitive Trails provide sustainable access to the most endangered phenomenon of our time – the experience of Wilderness. They create the space for humans to reconnect with Wilderness landscapes and to experience the benefits that it has to offer. In this way, Wilderness can be used to promote well-being and conservation.
The Lowveld Trails Co. Wilderness Rating system is important because it helps to raise awareness of the value of Wilderness areas. It also provides a way to measure the impact of human activities at a landscape level, and to identify areas (especially within protected areas) that are losing intrinsic value.
