Freedom to roam
The freedom to roam, or "everyman's right", is the general public's right to access certain public or privately owned land, lakes, and rivers for recreation and exercise. The right is sometimes called the right of public access to the wilderness or the "right to roam".
For the Nikola Šarčević album, see Freedom to Roam.
In Austria, Belarus, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, the freedom to roam takes the form of general public rights which are sometimes codified in law. The access is ancient in parts of Northern Europe and has been regarded as sufficiently fundamental that it was not formalised in law until modern times. However, the right usually does not include any substantial economic exploitation, such as hunting or logging, or disruptive activities, such as making fires and driving offroad vehicles.
In countries without such general rights, there may be a network of rights of way, or some nature reserves with footpaths.
Europe[edit]
Nordic countries[edit]
Ancient traces provide evidence of the freedom to roam in many European countries, suggesting such a freedom was once a common norm. Today, the right to roam has survived in perhaps its purest form in Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Here the right has been won through practice over hundreds of years[1] and it is not known when it changed from mere 'common practice' to become a commonly recognised right.
North America[edit]
United States[edit]
Because American property rights include the right to exclude others, the freedom to roam does not generally exist in the United States. But under some circumstances, long-term use of a path across private property may legally establish a prescriptive easement for the public. On federally owned property, the Property Clause of Article IV, Section III of the U.S. Constitution states that the United States Congress "shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States", granting the legislative branch the authority to regulate federal property "without limitations".[40]
In the United States, governmental entities including cities, counties, states, and the federal government all manage land which are referred to as either public lands or the public domain. The majority of public lands in the United States are administered by the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, agencies of the federal government, and include about 640 million acres of land, about 28% of the total land area of 2.27 billion acres.[41][42] Any person, including non-citizens, can legally access and recreate on these lands lawfully, sometimes referred to as the North American model of land conservation.[43] Some state and local governments enforce stricter policies on their public land, such as loitering laws and redlining practices,[44] with some cities outright banishing certain groups of people.[45] Here are some specific state and local policies:
Australia[edit]
Although formerly six British colonies, Australians only have limited access to the land, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.[64] However, much of Australia's land area is Crown land, which is administered by the Australian states, and while a lot of this consists of pastoral leases, and land owned and run by Aboriginal people (e.g. APY lands), access is normally permitted for recreational purposes to “unallocated” Crown land; though motorized vehicles are required to follow roads.[65]
New Zealand[edit]
There is extensive public access in New Zealand, including waterways and the coast, but it is "often fragmented and difficult to locate".[66]
The "Queen's Chain" is a concept in New Zealand property law. It is a strip of public land, usually 20 metres (or one chain in pre-metric measure) wide along rivers, lakes and the coast line. It was designed to prevent land upriver or along a coast being inaccessible to any prospective buyers. The strips are incomplete and their exact modern location can be complex to determine.[67][68] These strips exist in various forms (including road reserves, esplanade reserves, esplanade strips, marginal strips and reserves of various types) but not as extensively and consistently as is often assumed.[69]
In 2007, the government of New Zealand reviewed the rights of public access for outdoor recreation. However, unlike the United Kingdom, "the New Zealand review recommended no increase in the public's right to access private property".[70]
Criticism[edit]
In recent years increased mobility and affluence has made previously remote areas more accessible and though significant harm or damage is unusual, endangered species are being disturbed, and litter left, by some recreational users.[71][72]
Helena Jonsson, the President of the Federation of Swedish Farmers, argued in 2011 that the way land was used had changed and that the law was out of date and needed to be revised, so as "to bar commercial interests from using the law as an excuse to make a profit while they are on other people's private property".[73]