Many people consider the words bushcraft and survival to be interchangeable, with them being different words for the same thing. This simply isn’t true and apart from having different definitions, they have different methods and reasons behind them.
Survival includes things you need to do in order to sustain life
Bushcraft is the skill of creating comfort within the wilderness.
When you are engaged in a survival situation it means there is the possibility that your life is in immediate danger. The things you would need to do to survive would be done as safely, easily and quickly as possible, such as making a basic shelter that will simply work or boiling water from a natural water source because it’s your only option. The things you do when your in a survival situation will be done to save your life, and you won’t waste time or effort making unnecessary things because its just “nice” to have something like a birch bark cup.
Bushcraft is more of a very useful hobby that includes doing things to make your time in the wild more comfortable. Its true that there are many skills which can be learnt in one area that apply to the other, but bushcraft is more focused on ways to create things you’ll need from the wild in a safe environment were your life isn’t in danger.
A typical bushcraft weekend would be a couple of days in the woods casually making a nice shelter complete with some walls and then perhaps making a few woven or carved goods. A typical survive weekend would be travelling as far as you can, eating whenever you find food and sleeping in the cold, looking for anyone who can save you from your situation.
If you’re more of a text book kind of person then here are some official definitions for both the terms.
Survival
- The state of continuing to live or exist, especially after a dangerous event
(American dictionary)
- The state of continuing to exist, and not to fail or be destroyed
(Business English)
- The fact of a person, organisation, etc. continuing to live or exist
(Cambridge dictionary)
Bushcraft
- Skill in matters pertaining to life in the bush
(Oxford dictionary)
- Ability and experience in matters concerned with living in the bush
(Collins English Dictionary)
- Skill in anything pertaining to bush country, as in finding ones way, hunting, or finding water.
(Dictionary.com)
There are actually dozens, maybe even hundreds of definitions for the terms depending on where you look, but they all point to the same conclusions. Survival is doing things because you need to do them in order to survive, were as bushcraft is related to skills that increase your comfort and general knowledge of spending time in the wild.