Anthropogenic modification of forests means only 40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity

H S Grantham; A Duncan; T D Evans; K R Jones; H L Beyer; R Schuster; J Walston; J C Ray; J G Robinson; M Callow; T Clements; H M Costa; A DeGemmis; P R Elsen; J Ervin; P Franco; E Goldman; S Goetz; A Hansen; E Hofsvang; P Jantz; S Jupiter; A Kang; P Langhammer; W F Laurance; S Lieberman; M Linkie; Y Malhi; S Maxwell; M Mendez; R Mittermeier; N J Murray; H Possingham; J Radachowsky; S Saatchi; C Samper; J Silverman; A Shapiro; B Strassburg; T Stevens; E Stokes; R Taylor; T Tear; R Tizard; O Venter; P Visconti; S Wang; J E M Watson

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-19493-3

Anthropogenic modification of forests means only 40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity

Nat Commun. 2020 Dec 8;11(1):5978. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19493-3.

Authors

H S Grantham¹, A Duncan², T D Evans², K R Jones², H L Beyer³, R Schuster⁴, J Walston², J C Ray⁵, J G Robinson², M Callow², T Clements², H M Costa², A DeGemmis², P R Elsen², J Ervin⁶, P Franco², E Goldman⁷, S Goetz⁸, A Hansen⁹, E Hofsvang¹⁰, P Jantz⁸, S Jupiter², A Kang², P Langhammer^{11 12}, W F Laurance¹³, S Lieberman², M Linkie², Y Malhi¹⁴, S Maxwell³, M Mendez², R Mittermeier¹¹, N J Murray^{13 15}, H Possingham^{16 17}, J Radachowsky², S Saatchi¹⁸, C Samper², J Silverman², A Shapiro¹⁹, B Strassburg²⁰, T Stevens², E Stokes², R Taylor⁷, T Tear², R Tizard², O Venter²¹, P Visconti²², S Wang², J E M Watson^{2 3}

Affiliations

¹ Wildlife Conservation Society, Global Conservation Program, Bronx, New York, 10460, USA. hgrantham@wcs.org.
² Wildlife Conservation Society, Global Conservation Program, Bronx, New York, 10460, USA.
³ School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
⁴ Department of Biology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada.
⁵ Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, 344 Bloor St W #204, Toronto, ON, M5S 3A7, Canada.
⁶ United Nations Development Programme, One United Nations Plaza, New York, NY, 10017, USA.
⁷ World Resources Institute, Washington, DC, USA.
⁸ Global Earth Observation & Dynamics of Ecosystems Lab, School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, 86011, USA.
⁹ Landscape Biodiversity Lab, Ecology Department, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, 59717, USA.
¹⁰ Rainforest Foundation Norway, Mariboes gate 8, 0183, Oslo, Norway.
¹¹ Global Wildlife Conservation, P.O. Box 129, Austin, TX, 78767, USA.
¹² School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 874501, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA.
¹³ Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD, 4878, Australia.
¹⁴ Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
¹⁵ College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
¹⁶ School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia.
¹⁷ The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, VA, USA.
¹⁸ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91109, USA.
¹⁹ World Wide Fund for Nature Germany, Space+Science, Berlin, Germany.
²⁰ International Institute of Sustainability, Rio de Janeiro, 22460-320, Brazil.
²¹ Natural Resource and Environmental Studies Institute, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, Canada.
²² International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria.

Abstract

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 remain poorly quantified and mapped. By integrating data on observed and inferred human pressures and an index of lost connectivity, we generate a globally consistent, continuous index of forest condition as determined by the degree of anthropogenic modification. Globally, only 17.4 million km² of forest (40.5%) has 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 inside 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.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Africa, Central
Biodiversity*
Canada
Climate Change
Conservation of Natural Resources / legislation & jurisprudence
Conservation of Natural Resources / statistics & numerical data*
Environmental Policy*
Forests*
New Guinea
Russia