Wilderness Foundation UK

EPAW launches e-petition on the No.10 Website

Richard — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:39:55 +0000

EPAW – the European Platform Against Windfarms has launched an e-petition on the No.10 website, to set up an independent working party of acousticians and medical experts to fully explore the problems of wind turbine noise and the health consequences,as they claim that ETSU-R-97, the measurement presently used, is invalid and does not protect communities from unbearable noise pollution.

The European Platform Against Windfarms was founded in Paris on 4th October, 2008, by federations, associations, and other groups from four EU countries.

The aim of EPAW is to defend the interests of the many groups which are either:

opposing individual wind farm proposals;
or questioning the effectiveness of wind farms as a tool for solving our energy problems;
or protecting flora, fauna and landscapes from the damage wind farms cause directly or through environmental degradation such as erosion, water contamination and bush fires;
or fighting generally against the damaging effects of wind farms on tourism, the economy, people’s quality of life, their health and the value of their property;
or concerned with some or all of the above.

The spokesmen of the EPAW platform are:

Chairman: Jean-Louis Butré (President of the national federation Fédération Environnement Durable (FED), France)
Vice-Chairman: Ferdinand Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Bartenstein (President of the national federation Bundesverband Landschaftsschutz, Germany)
Delegate-General: Luc Rivet (President of the regional federation Vent de Raison, Belgium)
Secretary-General: Dominique Mette (France)
Spokesman for Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) plus Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia: Peter Skeel Hjorth (journalist, former editor-in-chief, Sweden)

You can contact EPAW by emailing contact@epaw.org

To sign the petition visit: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ETSU-R97Failings/

Two Years Into A Really Long Bike Ride

Richard — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:35:25 +0000

In June 2007, Tom Allen and Andy Welch pedalled away from their homes in the UK with a crazy idea that just might work – to travel round the world by bicycle. On their way, through sponsorship they have been raising funds in support of the Wilderness Foundation UK. This is a recap of their ongoing adventure.

In the beginning, everything seemed so simple. My mate Andy and I had gathered everything we needed, and we were standing outside my house amidst friends and family, all gathered to wish us well on the long journey we had ahead of us.

Suddenly, as we waved and cycled away from the crowd and down the streets we knew so well, a strange thing happened. The stress of the previous year of frantic planning, sponsorship-hunting and fundraising instantly evaporated. Such a huge psychological sigh of relief – we were finally on the road!

But in the same moment it hit home just how little we’d really grasped what we were setting out to do. This very act – pedalling down a quiet rural road with no idea where I was going to sleep – was going to be the reality, day in, day out, for months and years, behind the deceptive romance of the phrase “we’re going to cycle round the world”.

Sure enough, this would be no high adventure. It would be an intrinsically simple life – the simple struggles of mountains, storms, deserts, loneliness and language-barriers, coupled with the simple rewards of a warm sleeping bag, a hot meal, a river or lake to swim in, and the welcome of a stranger’s home in a foreign land.

Since then, there were countless amazing, joyful times, as well as a number of extremely tough ones. Not least, I overcame terrible homesickness and the challenge of living on less than 5 Euros a day in Europe, but four months later we rolled into the mystical Istanbul, Turkey, and the beginning of Asia.

Later, I would struggle through a truly bitter winter in the Caucasus, where temperatures dropped to minus 30 degrees Celsius at night, ill-equipped for such weather, talking my way into buildings every night to escape the biting cold. I would cross the vast, desolate expanses of the Sahara desert in Sudan; get malaria and have rocks thrown at me ! every day in Ethiopia; cycle through the hottest place on Earth, the Danakil Depression; have an armed escort for a thousand kilometres through troubled Yemen; roast in 60-degree heat in the Omani desert summer; and make it through the seven-lane highways of Dubai!

But leaving home was the toughest thing of all. At the time, neither of us had done any travelling whatsoever. We knew precious little of the world outside. And we had a vague inkling that what we were embarking on was ill-advised, under-prepared, and monumentally over-ambitious considering our experience.

Over the following months, we had a baptism of fire in which we realised we’d bitten off far more than we could comfortably chew – luckily in the relative comfort and close proximity of Europe – but that steep learning curve taught us many valuable things. Most important amongst these, perhaps, was that the world might be our oyster but it was also rather enormous, and that maybe it would be better to get to know a few parts of it more intimately than to try and swallow it all in one go.

Thus, our idea to single-mindedly circumnavigate the world evolved over thousands of kilometres of experience and retrospection, and is now more about gradually crawling the surface of the planet, without too many restrictive plans, slowing and stopping to delve a little deeper, putting down roots, and forming relationships with places and people, and using the bicycle as the tool to accomplish all of this.

I came to love my blog as an outlet for the turmoil and challenge of an unpredictable life to anyone who cared to listen. I was pleased when I discovered that others actually enjoyed reading my outpourings. Andy’s and my blogs evolved alongside the journey and are now a place to find not only tales from the road but also wider musings on the ins and outs of an itinerant lifestyle, observations of countries and cultures, practical advice for budding cycle travellers, and motivational material to help others achieve their own personal ambitions.

Photography was another very important creative outlet, and we’ve been truly spoilt for subject matter.

Sometimes it’s been an almost-impossible endeavour to balance this kind of life, to continue raising funds, to perceive and then to choose the best of many possible paths, to keep things in perspective and to consider the future as well as the present, and sometimes just to deal with bad roads, big hills and plain boredom and loneliness.

But the ultimate reward has been a deep feeling of taking control of life – learning to live lightly, realising the futility of the material quest, and finding fulfilment in a world that doesn’t have wealth and power as its prerequisites. Long-term cycle-touring isn’t for everyone – but so far, it’s suiting us just fine.

Tom Allen and Andy Welch left England in June 2007, and between them have cycled more than 35,000 kilometres through more than 30 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. Their website is at http://www.ride-earth.org.uk. They have just launched a photography calendar for 2010 in order to raise funds for the continuing expedition.

Ride Earth – the journey so far

Wild9 Training Begins

Richard — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:01:40 +0000

The countdown to the ninth World Wilderness Congress in Mexico has begun in earnest. With the congress proper launching on 6th November, pre-training has already got under way. Participants in the youth programme today began their three day trek in the Sian Kan wilderness, under the guidance of Outward Bound Mexico, and Kat Haber of our sister organisation Wild. In Merida, Yucatan, professional practitioners and leader from 15 nations working in areas as diverse as Antarctica, the Southern Amazon, Canada, Romania, Kenya -including 5 indigenous communities -began their three day Wilderness management training, interacting with trainers from the US Forest Service and the Wilderness Action Group (South Africa).

For all the latest news from the congress keep a close eye on our website over the coming days. Alternatively why not subscribe to our RSS Feed or follow us on Twitter?

No related posts.

Wild Leaders Youth Conference

Leigh — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:36:29 +0000

The second annual Wild Leaders Youth Conference will be taking place on Saturday 28th November 2009 at the University of London Union.

Once again we have lined up an excellent array of guest speakers, panellists and workshops to provide you with a day of learning, interest, fun and activity focused on wilderness, environment, climate change and biodiversity.

You are invited to join the Wilderness Foundation UK team for this ground breaking youth conference and it’s absolutely free! The only cost to you is your travel to and from our venue in London.

Our guests include:

Graham Game
Steve Carver
Peter Taylor
Dr. Kate Rawles
Nick Ray
Jon Alexander
James Mummery

This FREE conference is open to any trailist or programme participant from the last two years and will build on the learning that took place during your wilderness experience.

The conference will also provide you with the chance to be reunited with your friends from trail, as well as meet and share experiences with other trailists from the 2008 and 2009 year groups.

The day of programmes will run from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with lunch provided and is absolutely free!

Demand is expected to be high – so don’t miss out. Reserve your place now by emailing leighferris@wildernessfoundation.org.uk or calling the Wilderness Foundation UK team on 01245 443073.

We look forward to seeing you on the day.

Wild Leaders Youth Conference 2009

Causes and Solutions for Climate Change – with Satish Kumar

Richard — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:29:20 +0000

Satish Kumar will share some much needed optimism in the final of this year’s Gaia Evenings next Thursday (5th November 2009) as he explores the simple lifestyle changes that are needed in order to bring us back from the brink of climate and social collapse. Satish argues that we face a critical Point of Return, and that things needn’t be so pessimistic if we are able to shift our lifestyles from one of greed to one of grace.

Satish explains, “We need to return to a way of life which is free from damaging dependence on fossil fuel. To meet the challenge of global warming, we need to change from being consumers to being artists. As William Morris advocated long ago, arts and crafts ignite our imagination, stimulate our creativity and bring us a sense of fulfillment. Human happiness, true prosperity and joyful living can only emerge from a life of elegant simplicity. We are at the point of return from gross to subtle, from glamorous to gracious, from hedonism to healing, from conquest of the earth to conservation of nature, and from quantities of possessions to quality of life. It is ‘cool’ to be an optimist”.

Drinks and light buffet from 6.30pm at Gaia House, talk begins at 7.30pm in Burgh House.

Tickets cost £10 (concessions also available) and can be booked by contacting Rowan or clicking here

Please mention the Wilderness Foundation UK when booking your place.

Umzi Wethu launches blog site

Richard — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:44:44 +0000

Our friends at the Umzi Wethu Training Academy have now launched their own blog site.

Paul Longe, the Student Development Coordinator at the Academy tells us:

With so many exciting developments happening at Umzi each week we’ve decided to set up a blog as a way to share the news with everyone. While much of the success of our programme is achieved through the time and energy put in by our management teams – we would not be able to achieve any of this without the support and input from our many partners (funders, service providers, mentors and many more). A great big word of thanks to everyone who has had a part in making Umzi happen!

For all the latest news stories from Umzi visit http://umziwethunews.blogspot.com/

TurnAround participants set sail with the Morning Star

Richard — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:13:27 +0000

The Morning Star sails out of Chatham Docks

Participants in the Wilderness Foundation UK’s intervention programme for vulnerable youth – The TurnAround Project – have this week literally started to chart a new course.

A group of six participants, together with Wilderness Foundation UK CEO Jo Roberts, volunteers Roy Perry and Paul Morris and a University of Essex Researcher, Jo Barton all stepped on board the Morning Star on Tuesday (6th October 2009) and will spend the next five days serving as crew aboard the 62ft gaff ketch yacht operated by the Morning Star Trust.

This is the second “Wilderness Trail” that this group are under-taking and marks a major landmark in the participant’s progress through the 12 month long programme that each of them signed up for, after hearing about TurnAround through their school, family, Connexions or YOT working in Essex. The group will be challenged to work together as a team, supporting one another and discovering strength and skills they might never have imagined they had. They will also being applying their learning over the past months from mentoring and activity days organised by the Wilderness Foundation UK – which has helped the participants to gain confidence, improve their self-esteem and find ways of managing anger so that they can remove themselves from potentially volatile and occasionally violent situations.

Edward Charles, Project Manager of TurnAround says:

The participants share a variety of social and personal problems. Several have had lives that already include drug and alcohol abuse, dropping out from school, family breakdown, youth offending orders, low confidence and poor self esteem.

What unites them is the fact that they have all signed and agreed contracts to work towards learning how to take on personal responsibility, and are committed to the programme, and want to work as a group towards personal change.

On return from sailing the TurnAround participants will enter the final phase of the programme – Graduation. Participants, families, mentors, supporters and youth workers all come together in a day of celebration, which recognises the hurdles overcome and the achievements made.

Eddie explains:

For many of our participants, this will include the award of various forms of certificated accreditation that has been earned during the course of the programme, including but not limited to: Trident Skills for Life Certificates; Trident Community Involvement Certificate; The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Certificate of Prior Learning (Skills and Physical Recreation Sections); the Essex Arts Award and the Essex Youth Award.

To find out more about the TurnAround Project, including how you or your organisation can become directly involved in supporting this important initiative working with vulnerable youth – either financially or through the contribution of services in kind or time volunteering, please contact Eddie or Jo on 01245 443073 or click here to send us an email

To make a donation in support of TurnAround please visit: http://www.justgiving.com/turnaround-appeal/

Thank you for your support.

Jon does us proud in the Barcelona Ironman

Richard — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:35:55 +0000

The Eco Ironman - Jon Alexander

News has reached us from our Wilderness Hero, Jon Alexander who participated in the Barcelona Ironman competition yesterday (Sun 4/10/09). Jon says:

I´m alive, just about. Time of 11h32, which I have to say I´m pretty chuffed with. Swim was a total dream, did it in 1.06 which is way quicker than anticipated, and really enjoyed it – particularly the tunes on the music system just before the start, ´Let´s Get It Started´ and ´Crazy´, fairly appropriate! Bike was pretty good too, though the heat really started to tell towards the end, and I was beginning to be a bit scared before the run even began… and I was right to. Absolutely screwed by about 5km in, but managed to run between aid stations (every 2.5km), and was pretty chuffed to keep the marathon time respectable at 4.14. I genuinely can´t imagine having been in much more pain than I was by the end though – knees went numb at about 20km, and I´m really not sure how I did it from there. You meet a fairly unpleasant version of yourself when you get in that kind of condition!

Very many congratulations and our sincere thanks to Jon, as well as all those kind people who have followed his training, supported him in the race and supported the Wilderness Foundation UK in turn through sponsoring Jon or fundraising for us. We’re delighted to say that Jon has reached his target of £2,000 which has been dontated to the Wilderness Foundation UK. However, don’t stop there – if you haven’t given yet and still want to, you can sponsor Jon by visiting: http://www.justgiving.co.uk/ecoironman/ You can also read more of Jon’s account of the Ironman by visiting his blog at: http://www.ecoironman.blogspot.com/

Thank you everyone, but most especially Jon. We’re all very proud and touched by your commitment to and support for the Wilderness Foundation UK.

Join the Sirius Leadership Programme in Scotland

Richard — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:12:46 +0000

Enjoying the Sirius experience in Scotland

The Wilderness Foundation UK in conjunction with Tellus Mater (a grant giving trust) each year offers committed young environmentalists the chance to enter our Sirius Environmental Leadership Programme.

This wonderful opportunity provides young people with an almost fully funded trail in Scotland where the participants, together with leaders from the Wilderness Foundation UK and highly trained and experienced guides from our partner Wilderness Scotland, start to explore the impact that we have on the environment in our daily lives, how we can address any negative impact at home, in schools/colleges/universities and in our communities.

Issues we will cover include:

Leave No Trace
Leadership Roles
Identifying needs and wants
Sustainability
Land Use
How to make a difference

Canoeing with Sirius 2009

Our next trails depart on 26th October 2009 for five days and this month we are able to offer two different experiences – a course on the beautiful and remote Rannoch Moor focused on the area around Corrour and Loch Ossian (this trip includes a day of canoeing on the loch) and a walking expedition based at Glenfeshie. Both groups will be using lodges as a base and walking out for day workshops and activities in the midst of this breathtaking landscape. Weather permitting, we will camp out as much as possible so that we can truly develop a connection to and relationship with the natural world.

These will be the third and fourth Sirius trails we offer this year, with previous groups having gone out in July. One of our participants, Shail, says of Sirius:

I was really concerned about environment and on other such aspects regarding wilderness. However, my enthusiasm towards these matter has actually increased after the programme. I was also more or less losing hope towards a changed world however, i have started thinking about it again and it seems the project has given me that hope back that people are actually working towards changing the world.

A second participants, Mita, also endorses the Sirius programme:

I would call it a beautiful enlightenment. I think before the trip to Scotland I was interested in the environmental issues because I was aware of the consequences to what humans were doing to the world we live in however now I feel more passionate as I feel I want to campaign for the world we live in today as I can appreciate it more. I feel so lucky to have gone on this trip because I was able to share these experiences and thoughts with such amazing people; my wilderness family.

Sirius A participants enjoying a rest by the water fall

If you are, or know of a young person who would benefit from joining Sirius this month, then please contact the Wilderness Foundation UK as soon as possible. We have just a few places remaing so don’t miss your chance to learn new skills, experience some truly beautiful, unspoiled places and the opportunity to meet more young people like you who ultimately will be the leaders of the future.

The cost per student for this programme is £150.00, with the total value of the itinerary offered being over £800.00. Programme cost includes train travel to and from Scotland, all meals, accomodation and activities on trail.

For further information on how to join Sirius call Richard or Emma on 01245 443073 or alternatively email info@wildernessfoundation.org.uk with Sirius in the subject line.

The closing date for Sirius applications to be received is Friday 10th October 2009, so don’t delay.

Good luck!

To see other items on our website relating to the Sirius experience click here

Eco-Ironman Jon Alexander is ready for the challenge

Richard — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:18:49 +0000

I´m about to do a 140 mile race in a day. That´s a stupidly long way. It´s funny how these things only occur to you when it´s a little bit too late!

Jon Alexader - the Eco Ironman

So says our Wilderness Hero Jon Alexander, who has now safely arrived in Spain after his train journey from the UK. As you may recall, Jon has taking on the challenge of the Barcelona Ironman which takes places on Sunday 4th October 2009. Jon aims to travel to and from, and participate in the event in as environmentally friendly and sustainable fashion as is humanly possible.

To Jon and all his fellow competitors tomorrow, our very best wishes. Good luck – have a great race and make us proud (as if you haven’t already!)

We’ll update in the week to let you know how Jon got on, and his post race thoughts and feelings.

And don’t forget – it’s not too late to sponsor Jon, who is supporting the Wilderness Foundation UK. Visit his JustGiving page at: http://www.justgiving.co.uk/ecoironman/