Anthropogenic modification of forests means only 40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity - PubMed (original) (raw)

doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19493-3.

A Duncan 2, T D Evans 2, K R Jones 2, H L Beyer 3, R Schuster 4, J Walston 2, J C Ray 5, J G Robinson 2, M Callow 2, T Clements 2, H M Costa 2, A DeGemmis 2, P R Elsen 2, J Ervin 6, P Franco 2, E Goldman 7, S Goetz 8, A Hansen 9, E Hofsvang 10, P Jantz 8, S Jupiter 2, A Kang 2, P Langhammer 11 12, W F Laurance 13, S Lieberman 2, M Linkie 2, Y Malhi 14, S Maxwell 3, M Mendez 2, R Mittermeier 11, N J Murray 13 15, H Possingham 16 17, J Radachowsky 2, S Saatchi 18, C Samper 2, J Silverman 2, A Shapiro 19, B Strassburg 20, T Stevens 2, E Stokes 2, R Taylor 7, T Tear 2, R Tizard 2, O Venter 21, P Visconti 22, S Wang 2, J E M Watson 2 3

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

H S Grantham et al. Nat Commun. 2020.

Erratum in

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.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1

Fig. 1. Methods used to construct the Forest Landscape Integrity Index.

The Forest Landscape Integrity Index was constructed based on three main data inputs: (1) observed pressures (infrastructure, agriculture, tree cover loss), (2) inferred pressure modeled based on proximity to the observed pressures, and (3) change in forest connectivity.

Fig. 2

Fig. 2. Forest Landscape Integrity Index map.

A global map of Forest Landscape Integrity for the start of 2019. Three regions are highlighted including (a) Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee USA, (b) a region in Shan State Myanmar, and (c) Reserva Natural del Estuario del Muni in Equatorial Guinea. Maps A1–C1 shows the Forest Landscape Integrity Index for these locations. A2, B2, and C2 are photographs from within these regions: (A2) the edge of Smoky Mountains National Park; (B2) shows a logging truck passing through some partially degraded forest along a newly constructed highway in Shan Stat; and, (C3) shows an intact mangrove forest within Reserva Natural del Estuario del Muni, near the border with Gabon. The stars in (a), (b), and (c) indicate approximate location of where these photos were taken. All photos were taken by H.S.G.

Fig. 3

Fig. 3. Forest Landscape Integrity Index map categorized into three illustrative classes.

The Forest Landscape Integrity Index for 2019 categorized into three broad, illustrative classes and mapped across each biogeographic realm (a–g). The size of the pie charts indicates the relative size of the forests within each realm (a–g), and h shows all the world’s forest combined.

Fig. 4

Fig. 4. Forest Landscape Integrity Index map categorized into three illustrative classes for each major forested country.

The Forest Landscape Integrity Index for 2019 categorized into three broad, illustrative classes for each major forested country in the world. (a) countries with a forest extent larger than 1 million km2, and (b) countries with forest extent between 1 million km2 and 100,000 km2 of forest. The size of the bar represents the area of a country’s forests.

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