Now ambition is going truly wild
FEW THINGS excite biologists more than contemplating the parts of the world still relatively free of human damage.
For the last 30 years, scientists intent on protecting Earth’s biodiversity have sought to enshrine targets for preserving and expanding these remaining areas of wilderness.
But what actually is wilderness, and how do we know when we’ve found it?
Most people would call anywhere that’s remote and with few human inhabitants wilderness, but for scientists, it’s more complicated.
Most scientific definitions of wilderness centre on the concept of “intactness”. If the basic structure of a habitat, such as a forest, is intact and there is little evidence of human impact, then it is often considered wilderness.
Studies conducted over the past decade have tried to map how intact ecosystems are on a global scale using satellite imagery.
Their estimates suggest that between 20% and 40% of the planet’s land surface could be considered ecologically intact. But what can be detected by satellites is a poor measure of how wild a habitat actually is.
Beneath the seemingly intact canopy, the extinction of large mammals and birds through hunting and introducing invasive species and diseases has depleted the biodiversity of the world’s wilderness areas.
In a new study, my colleagues and I used a different definition of intact ecosystems that considers whether all species known to have occurred in an area are still present and whether they’re sufficiently abundant to play their ecological roles, such as top predators or seed dispersers.
We set the benchmark at AD1500, which means that only parts of the world which are as ecologically intact as they were 500 years ago – with the same complement of species at similar levels of abundance – could be considered wilderness.
We discovered that only 2.8% of the planet’s land surface fits this description. These patches, each 10000km² or larger, are scattered in various places around the world.
They include the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in the Congo, the Serengeti-Ngorongoro in Tanzania, the Alto Rio Negro indigenous territory in the Amazon forest, the Great Siberian Polynya in northern Russia and Kawésqar National Park in southern Chile. These are very rare and special places that should be conserved, but only 11% of them fall within a protected area.
Just a tiny fraction of Earth’s land ecosystems are as intact as they were 500 years ago. What might it take to restore them?
Clearly, where a species has gone extinct, the original wilderness cannot be revived. But where species have been locally eradicated but survive elsewhere, there’s hope for restoring an ecosystem’s integrity by reintroducing species.
This will take a significant commitment from governments and multinational bodies, as reintroduction can be costly and difficult. The original threats to wildlife have to be eliminated to ensure success.
But we predict that ecosystems with communities of wildlife at historical levels of abundance and activity could be restored on up to 20% of Earth’s land.
Focusing on areas of the world where the habitat appears intact from satellite images, we identified places where five or fewer large animal species have been lost and where it might be feasible to return them.
For example, some protected areas in the Congo Basin have lost forest elephants, but these areas are still large and remote enough and with plenty of intact habitat to support this species.
Reintroducing elephants here could be successful if hunting can be brought under control.
As the world considers a new framework for managing biodiversity, for example the UN Biodiversity Convention in October, the integrity of ecosystems is emerging as an important
Lindsay Myeni, wife of KwaZulu-Natal rugby player Lindani Myeni who was killed by Hawaiian police last week, has shared an emotional video on her YouTube channel, where she said she and her husband were afraid of police in America. She said people were always intimidated by Lindani because of his build. “People always treated him like he was a weapon. He was unarmed. You’re cowards,” she said of police. See http://bit.ly/MyeniDeath goal. The UN has also called the 2020s the “decade of restoration”, when national efforts should turn to restoring degraded habitats.
Repairing the world’s most damaged habitats is undoubtedly important, but there’s an opportunity to restore relatively intact habitats to something resembling their former glory.
Instead of just conserving them, let’s be ambitious and try to expand these rare and pristine patches by reintroducing long-lost animals.
If successful, these intact sites can serve as an invaluable reminder of what the rest of the world has lost, and a useful benchmark from which to measure what is truly wild.
Plumptre is from the Cambridge Conservation Institute, University of Cambridge
LOOKS like I have a direct line to the universal Manager of the Seasons.
No sooner had I sent out the memo that we were all tired of being hot, sweaty and frazzled, the switch was dialled down.
The season appears to have changed, just like that. It’s cooler and the nests of fans are down to one each. No need to stagger back into a cold shower three minutes after the last one. Thank you.
Now that the channel is open, perhaps managers of different departments will also act with alacrity.
Chilling on the couch with the happy pant-less pooches, I pondered: if this line really worked, what important requests would I make? You don’t want to get all greedy, and, having been given a hand, take the whole arm.
It would be ever so crass to ask that all our financial woes be taken care of, but perhaps the universe’s finance department could at least do a better job of spreading the cheer or a fairer cutting of the pie.
Here’s the request to that department: Please can you make sure there is enough?
You may have to work with the human resources department to educate everyone about what enough is.
Enough would make sure every person had a job and a proper, safe and warm place to call home, mansions not included. It would have electricity (I’ll get to that department in a while), hygienic toilets and a healthy environment. It would cater to small pleasures, like a good meal, and bigger ones like health and education.
If finance and HR worked together, we could cancel greed and gluttony and provide opportunity to grow and improve.
They could also spread the word on the importance of gratitude. The Covid crisis has paved the way for all of us to take stock and recognise that most of us have something, even little things, to be grateful for. The ability to recognise this is as good as a spa for your brain.
On to what is possibly the environment department: these guys seriously need to get their act together, and this is a stern memo.
Sort out our power and water problems and keep our lands, air, rivers and seas clean and safe. In short, save our Earth, our appliances and our internet connections. Thanks.
The universe’s internal affairs also has a tall order: teach us how every living thing deserves respect and to survive in its world order.
Rule out rage, stupidity, racism, ignorance and selfish social “tribalism”. We all do so much better when we care for one another and everything that shares the planet.
My most earnest request would be to the returns manager and I would ask for my sister Janet back. She died too young, of a brain aneurysm, and left too big a hole.
This line, however, will also be very busy. So much loss and heartache, from Covid to disease to murder to suicide. I know even the universe couldn’t supply what was top of my wish list, but go big or go home.
Hold your requests for my universal super power – just start with your own small actions to help make our world a bit better.