^Program Overview
^World Wilderness Summit
^Wilderness Working Sessions
^Speaker Biographies

Open Councils Will Support the Soul of the 7th WWC
"Open Council," where delegates can speak and listen from the heart about their personal feelings and experience in wilderness conservation, will be held daily in the late afternoon, 4-8 November, to support the "soul" and personal mission of the 7th WWC. The original concept of this council springs from the practice in many traditional cultures. In the Zulu culture, it is called "indaba," or an open council. This practice stimulated the original concept of the WWC over 25 years ago in South Africa, through the influence on WWC founder Ian Player by his Zulu friend and mentor, Magqubu Ntombela -- the importance of an unbiased, inclusive sharing of views, concerns and feelings for wilderness by all the people,.

The "Open Council" has no set agenda except to share wilderness conservation from personal feelings and experience. Good ideas will emerge about such issues as: Where have we been? Where are we now? Where do we need to go in the future? What do we need to overcome? How can we do that?

The councils will be convened by Marilyn Riley and John Hendee (USA; Wilderness Transitions, Inc, and The WILD Foundation), who co-led the Open Council at the 6th Congress in India, and their South African colleague, Patrick Marsh, of Port Elizabeth and the Wilderness Leadership School. Please join Patrick, Marilyn and John at the Open Councils.