Corridor Talk: Conservation Humanities and the Future of Europe’s National Parks

Abstract

Corridor Talk: Conservation Humanities and the Future of Europe’s National Parks is a DFG-AHRC funded project at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society at LMU Munich (Germany), and the University of Leeds (UK). The project focuses on three European transboundary national park areas: the Pyrenees, the Bavarian Forest and Šumava, and the Wadden Sea Biosphere Reserve. It uses comparative literature, visual ethnography and environmental history methodologies to connect insights into human culture, values, history, and behaviour that are central to humanities and social sciences research to nature conservation science and practice. It aims to foster a conservation that is more culturally aware, more aware of human behaviour and values, and more aware of the ethical complexities of its work by applying the “corridor talk” metaphor in three ways: to address and support the material ecological corridors that link protected sites; to address and support the symbolic corridors that connect governance and cultural perspectives on protected sites; and to bring humanities research into discussions on nature conservation.

Developing a Wilderness Quality Index for Continental Europe

“…Several national and local level WQI mapping programmes exist for selected European countries and areas. For example, national maps exist for Scotland [29], Iceland [26], Germany [30], Denmark [31], France [32], Switzerland [33], etc. These have been able to incorporate national datasets and more locally nuanced models taking local culture and landscape into account and, as such, could serve as tools for calibrating the accuracy and reliability of the regional level models presented here.…”