Scientists call for stop to disappearance of remaining intact land, ocean areas

Researchers who have produced a map of the world’s remaining intact land and ocean areas are urging international delegates at an upcoming meeting on biodiversity to set a target and push governments to conserve what’s left of the wild.

Oscar Venter, associate professor of forestry in the ecosystems science and management department at the University of Northern British Columbia, said the map shows human activity has encroached on 87 per cent of the ocean and more than 77 per cent of Earth’s land, excluding Antarctica.

“There’s normally this idea that wilderness is kind of remote and it’s far from people, and it’s safe, but through our work we’ve shown this is really not the case,” he said.

He said the 14th gathering of a biodiversity convention, hosted by Egypt and involving 190 nations later this month, should include a mandated global target beyond 2020 to save all remaining intact ecosystems.

Venter and scientists from Australia and the United States have outlined their concerns in a paper published in the journal Nature.

They say a century ago, only 15 per cent of Earth’s land was used to grow crops and raise livestock, and between 1993 and 2009 an area larger than India — 3.3 million square kilometres — was lost to human settlement, farming, mining and other industries.

As for the ocean, the only areas that are free of industrial fishing, pollution and shipping are almost completely confined to the polar regions, say the authors. They say more than 70 per cent of the world’s remaining land mass is in five countries: Russia, Canada, Australia, the United States and Brazil.