OPINION
Mary-Ann Ochota asks whether paid ‘wild camping’ platforms can further the land justice revolution we so badly need, as a wealthy landowner plans to return to court to remove the right to wild camp on Dartmoor
AS THE DARTMOOR wild camping battle rolls into the courts again, my thoughts turn to language. Dartmoor National Park Authority has asked that people call the contested activity ‘backpack camping’. The term ‘wild camping’ is being muddied, it says: used to describe people pitching on inappropriate sites and leaving amess. ‘Backpack camping’ does abetter job of describing the activity – carrying everything in and out yourself, using asmall, unobtrusive tent to ensure minimal impact on nature and other people.
We haven't agreed on aterm for the ‘bad’ kind of camping. ‘Fly camping’ sounds abit cool and unconstrained. ‘Dirty camping’ is no better. Maybe we shouldn’t award it aname. Simply call it littering and criminal damage.
Ithink it no accident that the landowners trying to prevent wild camping on Dartmoor (and media outlets sympathetic to their braying) used the ‘wild’ term to describe littering and antisocial behaviour. Muddy the accessing the moor might cause harm. Then, it seems reasonable that landowners want to protect nature from these hordes of would-be ne’er-do-wells. Language is apowerful tool.
Whilst wild, er, backpack camping has a showdown in the Supreme Court, another debate brews. Is it ‘wild’ if landowners charge people to camp on their land? There’s the ‘Almost Wild’ guide, and the ‘Nearly Wild Camping Directory’ and newcomer on the block, CampWild. The latter is bolder with the language, claiming to be a ‘wild camping platform’ working with ‘land custodians’ to ‘unlock anetwork of spaces in nature’. Pay for your pitch and you can go ‘behind private gates, into lands unexplored, nature unspoilt… hidden away for generations’ but now ready for adventure.
Idon’t suppose it’s what the CampWild founders intended, but their language doubles down my certainty that we urgently need aland justice revolution in this country. Unlock private gates and give me access to nature, yes. But not because I’m paying for the privilege –because access to nature and land is my right, as acitizen.
Until we achieve this in law, do these wild/wilder/almost wild camping providers have arole to play? I’ve spent plenty of nights wild camping in
