RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Modification of forests by people means only 40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.03.05.978858
DO 10.1101/2020.03.05.978858
A1 H.S. Grantham
A1 A. Duncan
A1 T. D. Evans
A1 K. Jones
A1 H. Beyer
A1 R. Schuster
A1 J. Walston
A1 J. Ray
A1 J. Robinson
A1 M. Callow
A1 T. Clements
A1 H.M. Costa
A1 A. DeGemmis
A1 P.R. Elsen
A1 J. Ervin
A1 P. Franco
A1 E. Goldman
A1 S. Goetz
A1 A. Hansen
A1 E. Hofsvang
A1 P. Jantz
A1 S. Jupiter
A1 A. Kang
A1 P. Langhammer
A1 W.F. Laurance
A1 S. Lieberman
A1 M. Linkie
A1 Y. Malhi
A1 S. Maxwell
A1 M. Mendez
A1 R. Mittermeier
A1 N. Murray
A1 H. Possingham
A1 J. Radachowsky
A1 C. Samper
A1 J. Silverman
A1 A. Shapiro
A1 B. Strassburg
A1 T. Stevens
A1 E. Stokes
A1 R. Taylor
A1 T. Tear
A1 R. Tizard
A1 O. Venter
A1 P. Visconti
A1 S. Wang
A1 J.E.M. Watson
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/31/2020.03.05.978858.abstract
AB Many global environmental agendas, including halting biodiversity loss, reversing land degradation, and limiting climate change, depend upon retaining forests with high ecological integrity, yet the scale and degree of forest modification remains poorly quantified and mapped. By integrating data on observed and inferred human pressures and an index of lost connectivity, we generate the first globally-consistent, continuous index of forest condition as determined by degree of anthropogenic modification. Globally, only 17.4 million km2 of forest (40.5%) have high landscape level integrity (mostly found in Canada, Russia, the Amazon, Central Africa and New Guinea) and only 27% of this area is found in nationally-designated protected areas. Of the forest in protected areas, only 56% has high landscape level integrity. Ambitious policies that prioritize the retention of forest integrity, especially in the most intact areas, are now urgently needed alongside current efforts aimed at halting deforestation and restoring the integrity of forests globally.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.