Wild river

Wild River
IUCN category Ib (wilderness area)
Example of a Wild River (ie Franklin River, Tasmania) protected as part of the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park

A Wild River (United States, Australia, & New Zealand) or Heritage River (Canada) is a river or a river system designated by a government to be protected and kept "relatively untouched by development and are therefore in near natural condition, with all, or almost all, of their natural values intact."

Within some nation states including in the United States of America, Canada, New Zealand, and the Commonwealth of Australia, governments have opted to focus on rivers and river systems as a kind of "unmodified or slightly modified" landscape feature to protect, manage and preserve in near 'natural' condition – variously labeling or formally declaring such areas to be "Wild Rivers" (or "Heritage Rivers").

The term "wild river" may also more generically describe or identify free flowing rivers without dams.

Where rivers or river systems may be labeled 'Wild Rivers' with the intention of protecting them to a Wilderness (IUCN Category 1b) standard, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warns:

"Indigenous and traditional peoples have often been unfairly affected by conservation polices and practices, which have failed to fully understand the rights and roles of indigenous peoples in the management, use and conservation of biodiversity"

Most recently, in Australia, following some declarations, and in the lead up to a number of other 'Wild River declarations using Queensland's Wild Rivers legislation, Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission observed:

"The Commission notes that Indigenous peoples of the Archer, Lockhart and Stewart River Basins disagree with the term ‘wild rivers’. They argue that the term is culturally inappropriate and implies that the land and waters in a proposed declaration were uninhabited and predominantly void of human activity. The use of the term ‘wild’ does not equate with Indigenous peoples’ perspectives and their continuing use of the rivers."

In 1979, Tasmania's Hydro-Electricity Commission released a proposal to dam and inundate the Gordon (37 km) and Franklin (33 km) Rivers, leading the Tasmanian Wilderness Society and other conservation groups to mobilize one of Australia's largest conservation battles and acts of civil disobedience, focused heavily on "..the protection of the Franklin River, one of Australia’s last truly wild rivers.." resulting in the river being World Heritage listed (as part of the Tasmanian Wilderness world heritage area) and a subsequent Australian High Court decision preventing the damming of this wild river.