The changing meaning of wild rivers: A review

Environmental activism has been instrumental in the adoption of public policies to protect the last remaining free-flowing rivers. In this regard, the passage of the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in the United States is an internationally recognised milestone. This legislation continues to inspire both other campaigns to protect wild rivers and the development of new conservation measures. The primary objective of this review is to provide a reconstruction of the trajectory of wild rivers as scientific subject matter. This approach allows us to study the processes of diffusion and adaptation of the American Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in other geographical contexts. It also aims to help us better understand the social and political effects of public policies that are geared towards the preservation of wild rivers. To this end, 106 scientific articles on wild rivers covering the period 1967 to 2024 were subjected to a lexical analysis (Step 1), a thematic analysis (Step 2) and a discussion of key issues based on an indepth reading (Step 3). This review shows that the recreational, cultural and emotional values associated with wild rivers are increasingly being replaced in the scientific literature with the ecological values of free-flowing rivers. Furthermore, while the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act still largely guides scientific research on the subject, this review identifies the controversies underlying its adoption/adaptation in other colonial contexts where the idea of wilderness plays a key role in conservation. Underlying these conflicts is the need to rethink river conservation initiatives based on Indigenous people’s ontologies.