The following blog is one of a series of four reporting on WILD’s wins for biodiversity and wilderness in 2023. If you like what you see and want to help create more victories for nature like these, please consider a gift to support WILD’s programs here.

There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about. Those words, penned by the management consultant Margaret J. Wheatley, ought to be the motto of the World Wilderness Congress.

Frequently, we think about environmental solutions in terms of technology and scientific research. And while science is absolutely necessary to combat many of our challenges, it alone cannot solve the systemic problems we face. Without the political and communal will to implement new solutions, study after study will do little more than collect dust. Additionally, without trust, built through listening and sharing, our coalitions may lack the commitment and resolve to carry through transformative actions in challenging times.

The World Wilderness Congress is the global community organizing platform for wilderness, bringing together political, business, artistic, and grassroots leaders from around the world to build trust and coordinated agendas for the protection of wilderness.

In prior Congresses we have built support for the protection of Half of Earth’s lands and seas, created millions of acres of new protected areas, and established wilderness policy frameworks in countries that, prior to the Congress, didn’t even have a word for wilderness.

At WILD12, we intend to continue this legacy of concrete outcomes for wilderness by bringing together tribal leaders from around the world to discuss the opportunities and threats at the top of their minds – from illegal logging and mining incursions on their land, the violation of their treaty rights as it pertains to environmental outcomes, and forced removal of Indigenous and local communities from territories – in order to strengthen the alliance between our two sectors, build shared understandings and trust, and create a stronger wilderness conservation movement globally.

Yes, some of these topics may be difficult, which is all the more reason to meet in-person to learn from each other and create the basis for an authentic community in wilderness.

When you give to WILD you support programs like these, working at a global level to create the basis for powerful coalitions and communities willing and able to work together to defend wildlife and wild places!

If you haven’t given already this year, consider a gift today to strengthen our wild community. And even if you do not intend to give, thank you for your attention and awareness on these matters. We hope to see you at WILD12 in 2024.

Our donors fuel WILD’s mission and vision. Every one of our successes belongs as much to them as it does to WILD. Please consider a gift to support WILD’s programs here.