Wilderness and Spirituality

Talk given by Harvey Locke, Vice-President of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society on 19 November 1998 in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada) to mark the 35th anniversary of the founding of this organization. The author criticises the fact that modern conservationist movements have in recent years become wedded to rationalism, thereby underestimating the importance of sacred values. He goes on to argue that there is a need to put intrinsic values back at the head of our scale of values. He reminds us of the spiritual values of virgin nature as the basis of various religious traditions and provides examples of the words of a number of prestigious Canadian and American conservationists and his own experiences.