The World Wildlands Congress (WSTC) was launched in South Africa 36 years ago, and is the oldest conservation project in the world. It has been held so far in the USA, Scotland, Australia, India, Norway, Mexico and Spain, and is the culminating meeting of global and local conservation projects and processes promoted every 4 years.

WILD 10, the Tenth CMTS, took place for the first time in a country in southern Europe and the Mediterranean basin. Specifically in Salamanca, from 4 to 10 October 2013, under the Honorary Presidency of H.M. Queen Sofia, and with the slogan “A New Vision of Conservation for Europe and the World”, emphasizing the recovery of wildlife and the role of environmental services.

The CMTS gives rise to tangible, effective and lasting links, institutions, projects and achievements, both in the country where it takes place and internationally; an example is the GEF or World Bank Environmental Fund, which originated in a workshop at the 4th CMTS. In 2013, Spain presented, among others, the Iberian part of a far-reaching ecological corridor, with public-private agreements on land stewardship and conservationist and inclusive management of uses.

Far from being a typical “environmental congress”, WILD 10 effectively has a core of conceptual debate dedicated to opening up new concepts in conservation, through presentations, communications and posters, but it also incorporates and combines the plenaries that make up the “Global Meeting” and different thematic coalitions “with a life of their own” that meet within it. This produces synergies between science, art/culture, political and social leadership, technical management, companies and governments, communication, social inclusion, youth and childhood; and encourages local participation in a unique effort to generate lasting progress, economic and social revitalization, and employment around the conservation and restoration of Nature.

WILD 10 brought together some 1500 in-person delegates from some 70-80 countries (and more than 50,000 online), in a week of concentrated and visible expression of a continuous process between congresses, which is strengthened and revitalized during them. In addition, dozens of international organizations and coalitions dedicated to the integration between people and natural spaces participated in the congress.

WILD 10 included:

• WILD10 Congress Celebration
• A global gathering of conservation leaders and practitioners, scientists, entrepreneurs, artists and politicians.
• A global forum of organizations and coalitions.
• Technical visits to natural areas with innovative conservation projects.
• A tent for exhibitions and exchanges.
• Promotion of the host territory of the Congress: The Iberian West
• A programme of cultural activities.

In addition, WILD10 was immediately preceded on 2 and 3 October 2013 by a Global Intergovernmental Forum, attended by state public administrations from fifteen countries and tribal leaders from around the world, who held an informal exchange of experiences and views on topics such as cross-border conservation at the landscape scale, and international conservation networks.