EUROPEAN WILDERNESS SOCIETY, VEREINZUM SCHUTZ DER EUROPAISCHEN WILDNIS

The European Wilderness Society (EWS) is the only Pan-European, Wilderness and environmental advocacy non-profit organisation with a dedicated multi-cultural and very experienced professional team of Wilderness and wildlife specialists, nature conservationists, researchers and scientists, tourism experts, marketing and business professionals, legal advisors and Wilderness advocates. This enables the organisation to provide expertise in various services and activities. Uniting wild areas with non-intervention management across Europe, the European Wilderness Society operates the European Wilderness Network, with more than 40 European protected areas that have embedded areas of designated Wilderness. We audit and certify WILDIslands, WILDRivers, WILDCoasts, WILDForests and Wilderness and provide a reliable network and continuous support for the protected area managements. Such a European network has a very powerful role regarding the current challenges in nature conservation in a European context. Across Europe, you come across different places, nature and culture. There is also a clear and visible difference in the degree of development and wealth. However, through the European Wilderness Network all areas are encouraged to be aware of a different, intrinsic fortune, which is nature. The European Wilderness Society aims to provide support to this network on various levels. The European Wilderness Society focuses deeply on the right relationship between humans and nature and considers communication as a key tool for that. The European Wilderness Society has a well-developed communication strategy and online presence. Operating a main information website as well as multiple thematic websites, the international follower number is consistently growing. The main website offers high-quality articles on current world-wide topics in nature conservation that are continuously published. Newsletters, a journal and a yearly European Wilderness Network book provide a concise, regular online and printed review to the supporters. Moreover, the European Wilderness Society is focused on youth education about environmental issues targeting e.g. Wilderness, wildlife, climate overheating, ecosystem dynamics. Through different projects and programmes like Erasmus+ we frequently organise activities with youth to actively engage them in these important environmental topics. These activities are often organised with the involvement of protected areas, which allows us to engage kids starting from kindergarten age to middle- and high-school, providing first-hand knowledge about environmental conservation from experts working in the field. Within two multi-year project financed by the Austrian Ministry, EWS educates youth on nature, wildlife, Wilderness and other related topics. In the years 2017-2018 alone, 1000+ Austrian youngsters participated in the project. The successful 3-day Youth Green Conference 2019 project (Erasmus Structured Dialogue), brought together Austrian and Ukrainian students to exchange ideas about current green topics in Europe. The next edition, with more international participants, is planned for 2021. Besides these youth events, EWS is hosting 2 long-term Erasmus volunteers on an annual basis since the beginning of 2018, after having received the EVS label in late 2017. Plus, EWS is hosting 2 additional volunteers from the Interreg Volunteer Youth programme. This is described in further detail below, under relevant activities and experiences. Various events are organised yearly that target youth and adults, working within and outside the field of nature conservation. For example, the WILDArt project brings nature and Wilderness closer to people who want to be creatively inspired by wild nature, but don’t have the opportunity to get in contact with it easily. Furthermore, our organisation is well-known for organising the European Wilderness Academy Days, the only Wilderness-focused international conference in Europe attracting do