The role of wilderness areas in preserving biodiversity
Wilderness areas are the last examples of intact ecosystems, but they have declined at an accelerating rate in recent years due to human activities.
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While the role of wilderness is maintaining ecosystem services and supporting indigenous populations is well-recognised, their importance for the global conservation of biodiversity remains controversial. Our goal is to estimate the role that wilderness areas play in supporting biodiversity globally, focussing on vascular plant and invertebrate biodiversity (representing the largest part of terrestrial biomass and species, respectively).
Access our Nature paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1567-7
What's going on:
- Sep '19 Publication of a Nature paper on "Wilderness areas halve the extinction risk of terrestrial biodiversity"
- Dec '18 A paper is submitted to a multidisciplinary journal
- Aug '18 Results are discussed in a meeting with all project participants in Brisbane
- Mar '18 Our work starts as part of a strategic research agreement between CSIRO, The University of Queensland and the Wildlife Conservation Society.