Nature Conservancy Magazine: Winter 2007 - Newsfront: End of the Wild

Transportation
Enlarge map
Transportation networks around the world crisscross nearly every part of the Earth.

Agriculture
Humans have converted about 50 percent of the Earth’s terrestrial surface to either pasture or cropland.

Go Deeper

Is there any wilderness left? A new article in SCIENCE magazine co-authored by The Nature Conservancy's chief scientist, Peter Kareiva, says not really — and that conservation's task is no longer to "preserve the wild, but to domesticate nature more wisely."

Just about every place on Earth has been altered in some way by human actions, according to a new study in the journal Science by Nature Conservancy researchers. The study finds that half of the world’s lands are now tilled or grazed, more than 50 percent of forests have been felled, and even the most wild places show traces of human handiwork.

“We affect every place on Earth,” says Tim Boucher, a Conservancy scientist and co-author of the report. People have domesticated and changed entire ecosystems. Melting ice caps in Antarctica, the spread of invasive species around the globe and the dramatic alteration of oceanscapes wrought by overfishing all stand testament to the human footprint.

Still, Boucher sees hope in the study’s findings: “Our actions matter. We have it within us to make good decisions for ecosystems around the world if we think through the impacts before we act.”

The trick, he says, is managing resources in ways that benefit both people and other species. “This study shows us that it’s up to us to determine what our footprint will be. We get to choose.”

—Curtis Runyan

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): © Joe Zeff Design, Inc. (Map); © Rick McEwan (Cows); Map compiled by Timothy Boucher/TNC. Data sources: Digital Chart of the World, ESRI, 1991. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2005. Spatial Ecology & Epidemiology Group, University of Oxford, 2006.