Interrogation autour de la nature et du sauvage à propos de l’établissement de wilderness areas en Europe

In 2009, the European Commission was mandated by the Parliament to draw up a development strategy for the development of wilderness areas. However, Europe is not known to have vast areas of wilderness or virgin nature, and in this context, considering wilderness areas in Europe seems counter-intuitive. The term has played a major cultural role since the 19th century in the countries born of British colonisation, before becoming a recurrent term in nature conservation strategies. However, its cultural and scientific meanings remain heterogeneous. The aim of this article is to reflect on what "wilderness" Europe can claim to refer to in order to promote an ecological strategy. The article draws on recent literature on wilderness in Europe, the evolution and greening of the concept, and promotional actions supported by environmental NGOs in various regions of Europe. It explores the limits and contradictions involved in promoting a concept that tends to be naturalized and ecologized. The results show that in the field of wilderness, faced with the relative slowness of European public authorities, private and associative initiatives are outpacing government actions, which raises questions about the relevance, and even the effectiveness of this new designation of conservation strategies.