Collaboration across cultural boundaries to protect wild places: The British Columbia experience

Abstract

Culture counts in the protection of wilderness! Culture can be defined as the shared products of a given society: its values, norms, knowledge, and ideals, as well as its material goods. If history reveals nothing else, it teaches us that the norms, values, ideals, and language of a society are what defines wilderness. What one society calls wilderness, another society calls home. Such cross-cultural differences in understanding what constitutes wilderness over time is well documented in literature. Recognizing the historical variation between cultural groups is an essential first step in building alliances for wilderness protection and management that will endure the test of time. Perhaps the need for bridging cultural differences is no more evident than in the Circumpolar North where norms, values, and ideals have a rich variation among people living in landscapes containing diverse qualities of wilderness.

Parent Publication

• Wilderness in the Circumpolar North: searching for compatibility in ecological, traditional, and ecotourism values; 2001 May 15-16; Anchorage, AK

Citation

Pfister, Robert E. 2002. Collaboration across cultural boundaries to protect wild places: The British Columbia experience. In: Watson, Alan E.; Alessa, Lilian; Sproull, Janet, comps. Wilderness in the Circumpolar North: searching for compatibility in ecological, traditional, and ecotourism values; 2001 May 15-16; Anchorage, AK. Proceedings RMRS-P-26. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 27-35.