tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/wilderness-10424/articlesWilderness – The Conversation2023-05-03T03:36:40Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2042642023-05-03T03:36:40Z2023-05-03T03:36:40ZAlone Australia contestants are grappling with isolation and setbacks. Here’s what makes a winner<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523957/original/file-20230503-26-dytqdu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3600%2C2401&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will it be Gina?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">SBS TV</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The winner of the reality TV show <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/alone-australia">Alone Australia</a>
will need more than “survival skills” to succeed. They will also need to draw on a host of psychological strengths.</p>
<p>Will the winner be the one who shows the most mental toughness or “grit”? Will it be the one who copes with being socially isolated in the Tasmanian wilderness for weeks? How about the contestant who takes a moment to feel awe watching a sunset?</p>
<p>I’m a social psychology researcher, specialising in the dynamics between social interactions and emotions. Here’s what happens when you take away those social interactions, and some thoughts on who’s most likely to thrive.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-alone-australia-tells-us-about-fear-and-why-we-need-it-203399">What Alone Australia tells us about fear, and why we need it</a>
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<h2>Remind me, what’s Alone Australia?</h2>
<p>Alone Australia on SBS TV involves ten contestants who are dropped into the wilds of a Tasmanian winter. Each has ten chosen items (from an approved list) and kilos of recording equipment. </p>
<p>Aside from medical check-ins, they have no social contact. Over the coming days and weeks, they film themselves building a shelter, making fire, and finding food and water. Some thrive, some clearly struggle.</p>
<p>Contestants can choose to “tap out” or can be removed for medical reasons. The contestant who lasts the longest wins A$250,000.</p>
<p>Contestants were selected on the basis of having survival skills and a personality likely to be engaging on camera. </p>
<p>But success on the show will likely also stem from a range of psychological capacities – and perhaps a bit of good luck.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/woman-spends-500-days-alone-in-a-cave-how-extreme-isolation-can-alter-your-sense-of-time-204166">Woman spends 500 days alone in a cave – how extreme isolation can alter your sense of time</a>
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<h2>Mental toughness is key</h2>
<p>Contestants face a gruelling environment. They are repeatedly challenged by the terrain and weather, as well as by hunger and setbacks.</p>
<p>Here, “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1612197X.2007.9671836">mental toughness</a>”, which is related to the popular idea of “<a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.545526/full">grit</a>”, plays a role. </p>
<p>Mental toughness is a group of personality characteristics originally identified in elite and successful athletes. It relates to coping with the pressures of competition, as well as setting and following through on training and performance goals. </p>
<p>Athletes higher in mental toughness tend to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S144024401400632X">perform better</a>. Mentally tough military recruits are more likely to be <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robin-Lines-2/publication/339962608_Mental_toughness_as_a_psychological_determinant_of_behavioral_perseverance_in_special_forces_selection/links/5e858551a6fdcca789e8e6bf/Mental-toughness-as-a-psychological-determinant-of-behavioral-perseverance-in-special-forces-selection.pdf">selected</a> to join special forces.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523967/original/file-20230503-26-6m3cre.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Mike, contestant on Alone Australia, in Tasmanian wilderness" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523967/original/file-20230503-26-6m3cre.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523967/original/file-20230503-26-6m3cre.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523967/original/file-20230503-26-6m3cre.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523967/original/file-20230503-26-6m3cre.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523967/original/file-20230503-26-6m3cre.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523967/original/file-20230503-26-6m3cre.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523967/original/file-20230503-26-6m3cre.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Will it be Mike?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SBS TV</span></span>
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<p>Can mental toughness be cultivated in the moment? It appears so. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20445911.2014.995104">Thinking back</a> to past failures tends to spur people to stick to current tough goals. Future thinking also plays a role. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10413200.2011.605422">Imagining a future</a> in which you are confident and in control builds self-reported toughness.</p>
<p>We know mentally tough people use a few “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17461390903049972">performance strategies</a>”. These include talking positively to themselves (either out loud or in their mind), controlling their emotions, and intentionally staying relaxed. People can practise and draw on these strategies in the face of adversity. Mentally tough people also avoid negative thinking such as leaning into thoughts of failure or engaging in self-blame.</p>
<p>But mental toughness has limits. When <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1440244017317498">fatigued</a>, mental toughness no longer predicts perseverance towards a difficult physical goal. Instead, underlying fitness levels appear to be critical.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grit-or-quit-how-to-help-your-child-develop-resilience-195195">Grit or quit? How to help your child develop resilience</a>
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<h2>Combating loneliness is crucial</h2>
<p>The main premise of the show – and its namesake – is total social isolation.</p>
<p>Research highlights the <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/social-isolation-and-loneliness-covid-pandemic">difference</a> between <em>social isolation</em> (lack of opportunity for social interaction) and <em>loneliness</em> (the distressing feeling that one’s social needs aren’t being met). A person can be socially isolated but not feel lonely or feel lonely even in the presence of others.</p>
<p>Not everyone has the same needs for social interaction. Indeed, some people place high value on solitude and generally need less interaction to <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1068609/full">avoid loneliness</a>. </p>
<p>But there’s a caveat. “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2010.00702.x">Social anhedonia</a>” (markedly low interest in and reward from interpersonal connection) is associated with poor functioning.</p>
<p>Even people who don’t prefer solitude can get creative about fulfilling social needs when people aren’t around.</p>
<p>Humans tend to <a href="https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/soco.2008.26.2.143">anthropomorphise</a> (or perceive as human) non-human objects and animals when feeling lonely. </p>
<p>You might remember <a href="https://www.wilson.com/en-us/blog/volleyball/behind-scenes/true-story-wilson-volleyball">Wilson the volleyball</a> from the movie Cast Away. Wilson kept the lead character company during his years being stranded on an island.</p>
<p>People can also remember past, or anticipate future, social interactions. This “<a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00013/full">social daydreaming</a>” may help people cope when their friends and family are not around.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-politics-of-the-castaway-story-200827">The politics of the castaway story</a>
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<h2>How about awe and pride?</h2>
<p>Emotional experiences also likely have a role in pushing some contestants to endure longer. Others have written about the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-alone-australia-tells-us-about-fear-and-why-we-need-it-203399">role of fear</a> on the show (in a nutshell, fear has its place and isn’t to be avoided). </p>
<p>But research also points to the potential benefits of positive emotions in this situation, such as awe and pride.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523969/original/file-20230503-28-i6veb9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Kate, contestant in Alone Australia, in Tasmanian wilderness" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523969/original/file-20230503-28-i6veb9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523969/original/file-20230503-28-i6veb9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523969/original/file-20230503-28-i6veb9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523969/original/file-20230503-28-i6veb9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523969/original/file-20230503-28-i6veb9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523969/original/file-20230503-28-i6veb9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523969/original/file-20230503-28-i6veb9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Will it be Kate?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SBS TV</span></span>
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<p>Natural environments are in no short supply for contestants on the show. In fact, nature is nearly all they see. And nature is a prime trigger of
<a href="https://www.templeton.org/discoveries/the-science-of-awe">awe</a> – the positive emotional experience when witnessing extraordinary things that are vast and complex.</p>
<p>Awe is linked to a variety of <a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/eight_reasons_why_awe_makes_your_life_better">beneficial outcomes</a>, including higher self-reported wellbeing, physical health, critical thinking and humility.</p>
<p>Most of us are familiar with pride – the emotional experience associated with achievement. Pride isn’t just felt upon attaining a goal, but also when making <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1469029217307446">progress</a> along the way. </p>
<p>Despite pride’s bad rap (for instance, as a deadly sin), my own research links the experience of pride to <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18505314/">pursuing goals</a>. People work harder at a goal when they’re feeling proud of earlier accomplishments. </p>
<p>One key to unlocking the benefits of positive emotions such as pride and awe is to mindfully find the opportunities to experience them. Specifically, <a href="https://internationaljournalofwellbeing.org/index.php/ijow/article/view/18">savouring the moment</a> is a documented strategy for intentionally increasing the experience of positive emotions such as awe and pride.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/personalities-that-thrive-in-isolation-and-what-we-can-all-learn-from-time-alone-135307">Personalities that thrive in isolation and what we can all learn from time alone</a>
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<h2>Are you a future Alone Australia winner?</h2>
<p>If you’re thinking of applying for future seasons of Alone Australia, you might be wondering if you have what it takes.</p>
<p>Given time, you can build both your survival and psychological skills.</p>
<p>You can develop mental toughness, your capacity to combat loneliness while socially isolated, and your ability to savour positive emotions such as awe and pride.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-hedonism-and-how-does-it-affect-your-health-78040">What is hedonism and how does it affect your health?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204264/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa A. Williams receives funding from the Australian government (Australian Research Council; Department of Industry, Science, and Resources).</span></em></p>Is winning about mental toughness? How about coping with social isolation? Or will it be the one who’s in awe of a sunset?Lisa A Williams, Associate Professor, School of Psychology, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2029152023-04-21T12:41:15Z2023-04-21T12:41:15ZBoy Scouts of America can now create $2.4 billion fund to pay claims for Scouts who survived abuse – a bankruptcy expert explains what’s next<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518556/original/file-20230330-1211-2pnq14.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=54%2C46%2C2757%2C1918&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The alleged sexual abuse that led to this settlement occurred from 1944 through 2016. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/boy-scouts-of-america-dressed-in-uniforms-carry-american-news-photo/1159640147">Newsday LLC via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>On April 19, 2023, the <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-boy-scouts-of-america-bsa-announces-confirmation-of-plan-of-reorganization-and-emergence-from-chapter-11-bankruptcy-to-equitably-compensate-survivors-while-ensuring-scouting-continues-across-the-country-301802086.html">Boy Scouts of America declared that it has exited its bankruptcy</a> case after <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/boy-scouts-emerges-chapter-11-bankruptcy-2023-04-19/">clearing one of the last legal hurdles</a> in its way. Some insurance companies and sex abuse claimants objected to the Boy Scouts’ plan to pay claimants, but the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the plan can go ahead anyway while the insurers’ appeal is pending. It’s now possible to begin the process of paying at least US$2.45 billion to resolve about 82,000 claims against the Boy Scouts and affiliated entities asserted by people who allege that they were <a href="https://abusedinscouting.com/history-of-abuse/">sexually abused as children</a> over the <a href="https://vaumc.org/blog/2022/07/08/important-positive-news-regarding-the-boy-scouts-and-our-local-churches/">past 80 years</a>.</em> </p>
<p><em>The Boy Scouts operate through the national organization known as the BSA, which includes hundreds of separate but affiliated organizations known as <a href="https://www.scouting.org/about/local-council-locator/">local councils</a>, and faith-based or civic groups called <a href="https://scoutingmagazine.org/2021/04/scouting-faq-chartered-organizations">chartered organizations</a>. Because these troop-sponsoring nonprofit organizations across the country are responsible for ensuring the safety of children in scouting, all of them faced child sexual abuse claims.</em></p>
<p><em>The BSA <a href="https://cases.omniagentsolutions.com/?clientId=3552">filed for bankruptcy in February 2020</a> to halt the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-delaware-dover-lawsuits-religion-38c9b9db99c491bec9e1bd31d26ea63d">hundreds of lawsuits that were then pending</a> in state courts. More than two years later, the BSA reached an agreement with many of its insurers, all of the local councils, some of the chartered organizations and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/first-payments-to-sex-abuse-victims-in-boy-scouts-bankruptcy-could-take-18-months-11648077889">roughly 85% of all sex abuse claimants</a> on a plan to pay claims.</em> </p>
<p><em><a href="https://pennstatelaw.psu.edu/faculty/reilly">The Conversation asked Marie T. Reilly</a>, a Penn State law professor who studies bankruptcy cases involving child sex abuse claims against Catholic dioceses, to explain what this means.</em></p>
<h2>What happens next?</h2>
<p>The plan the court approved in the BSA’s bankruptcy case will <a href="https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/6cfcb7aa-d181-40ec-aad1-5543a02babcd_BSA_Plan_Summary_and_FAQs.pdf">create a settlement trust</a> to process and pay sexual abuse claims.</p>
<p>Two retired judges and a committee made up of lawyers who represent sex abuse claimants will administer the trust, which will be <a href="https://www.bsarestructuring.org/event/district-court-rules-in-favor-of-bsa-upholding-the-order-to-confirm-the-bsas-plan-of-reorganization/">the largest sexual abuse compensation fund</a> ever established in the U.S. It will operate independently of the BSA. </p>
<p>The trust will take over responsibility for all claims against the BSA. All parties that contribute to it will be relieved of their liability.</p>
<h2>Where will the money come from?</h2>
<p>The BSA will contribute to the trust property estimated to be worth $220 million. Local councils will contribute about $515 million in cash, property and money obtained from their insurers. Chartered organizations, including the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/boy-scouts-revises-bankruptcy-plan-to-remove-250-million-mormon-church-settlement-11660589753">Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-religion-delaware-sexual-abuse-by-clergy-dover-287019e3686c8b0005ffe6ee715a4a04">Roman Catholic and Methodist</a> churches, schools and other affiliated institutions, will also contribute and receive a release from liability for claims.</p>
<p>The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, still sometimes called the Mormon Church, used to participate in the Boy Scouts but <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/09/us/boy-scouts-mormon-church.html">severed ties to it in 2018</a>. It will contribute <a href="https://www.bsarestructuring.org/event/bsa-marks-progress-with-chartered-organizations-and-announces-new-agreements-for-1-037-billion-in-contributions-to-trust/">$250 million</a>.</p>
<p>Insurance companies that issued policies covering the BSA will contribute about $1.6 billion. The trustee of the settlement trust has the authority to sue the insurance companies that have not agreed to the settlement to try to get more money to pay claims.</p>
<h2>How much money will survivors get and when will payments begin?</h2>
<p>People who have filed sex abuse claims have three options:</p>
<p>1) Accept a $3,500 payment based on the information already submitted about their claim in the bankruptcy case. <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/first-payments-to-sex-abuse-victims-in-boy-scouts-bankruptcy-could-take-18-months-11648077889">About 6,700 survivors have already elected</a> this option.</p>
<p>2) Submit additional information and have the trustee determine the amount based on <a href="https://www.bsarestructuring.org/estimated-potential-payment-calculator/">agreed-upon factors</a>, including the severity of the abuse.</p>
<p>3) Sue in state court and have a jury determine the amount.</p>
<p>Payments will not start to flow until the trust determines the payment amount of each claim. If the fund is not big enough to pay every claim in full, the trust will reduce the amount of each claim to reflect the estimated shortfall. </p>
<p>It’s hard to say how long it will take to process the nearly 75,000 claims that have not elected the $3,500 option.</p>
<p>Among other things, the trust will need to hire and onboard staff and to set up secure systems to gather and evaluate personal information from tens of thousands of people.</p>
<p>This is likely to be both expensive and slow.</p>
<h2>How will this settlement affect the Boy Scouts?</h2>
<p>The Boy Scouts face an uncertain future after the bankruptcy case.</p>
<p>The organization’s <a href="https://www.ncacbsa.org/who-pays-for-scouting/">revenue depends on membership dues</a>, contributions from its troop sponsoring organizations, product sales, service fees and donations. And the dues are lower because of a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/only-on-ap-health-coronavirus-pandemic-7afeb2667df0a391de3be67b38495972">sharp decline in membership</a>. The BSA now has a little <a href="https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2023/01/05/1-million-and-growing-bsa-membership-is-on-the-rise/">more than 1 million members</a> across the country – about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/us/boy-girl-scouts-membership-decrease-covid.html">half as many as in 2019</a>.</p>
<p>Trying to convert some of the Boy Scouts-owned properties into cash to meet the organization’s obligations under the bankruptcy plan is complicated. It may take years to accomplish, dragging out the timeline.</p>
<p>Local councils are already selling property to raise the cash they need to make the contribution to the fund.</p>
<p>For example, a local council in New Jersey is <a href="https://www.poconorecord.com/story/news/environment/2022/12/21/boy-scout-camp-sale-in-poconos-would-go-towards-victims-of-sex-abuse/69734886007/">selling its land in the Pocono Mountains</a> to pay its share of the contribution to the compensation fund. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/poconos-coal/monroe-county-group-hoping-to-keep-former-boy-scout-camp-from-being-sold-to-developers/article_ec0bc5be-9135-11ed-bbcb-c7ebc89469f6.html">Local residents are concerned</a> that the pristine land, estimated to be worth $4 million, will end up lost to developers.<br>
The same controversy is unfolding regarding the <a href="https://www.curbed.com/2022/07/boy-scouts-open-space-for-sale.html">sale of local council property in Connecticut</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/science-technology/loss-of-open-space">U.S. Forest Service estimates</a> that 6,000 acres (24 square kilometers) of open space are lost every day to other uses. <a href="https://www.scouting.org/outdoor-programs/properties/">Local Boy Scouts councils own</a> a significant portion of open space in the U.S., and much of it may be lost.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518559/original/file-20230330-17-vzefiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A lakeside structure in the wilderness with a large rustic building in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518559/original/file-20230330-17-vzefiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518559/original/file-20230330-17-vzefiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518559/original/file-20230330-17-vzefiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518559/original/file-20230330-17-vzefiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518559/original/file-20230330-17-vzefiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518559/original/file-20230330-17-vzefiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518559/original/file-20230330-17-vzefiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Deer Lake Boy Scout Reservation in Killingworth, Conn., is among the many properties nationwide being sold by local councils.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BoyScouts-CampSelloff/02f7fcf4e1234edebf58bc56a493144b/photo?boardId=37be9465fcce45d283d5431cccb20a6a&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=331&currentItemNo=4">AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb</a></span>
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<h2>Are there precedents for this?</h2>
<p><a href="https://elibrary.law.psu.edu/bankruptcy/">Catholic organizations have resolved liability</a> for child sexual abuse in bankruptcy cases with plans that are similar to the BSA’s. But the scale of the Boy Scouts’ case in terms of the number of claims and the size of the settlement trust fund is much larger than any case involving a single diocese, or any other nonprofit organization bankruptcy case.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202915/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie T. Reilly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This is a green light for creating the largest-ever compensation fund for sex abuse claims.Marie T. Reilly, Professor of Law, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2000242023-02-17T14:12:28Z2023-02-17T14:12:28ZHow Sylvia Plath’s profound nature poetry elevates her writing beyond tragedy and despair<blockquote>
<p>I cannot stop writing poems! … They come from the vocabulary of woods and animals and earth.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong><em>From a letter from Sylvia Plath to her mother, 1956</em></strong></p>
<p>Popular perceptions of Sylvia Plath tend to dwell on a deeply troubled version of the young poet due to her well-documented difficulties with depression and the <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49000/lady-lazarus">morbid imagery</a> found in some of her poetry. So the idea that nature inspired her writing may come as a surprise. </p>
<p>This despairing Plath is a far cry from the poet I have come to know and admire – a poet who writes about the <a href="https://mywordinyourear.com/2021/10/22/watercolour-of-grantchester-meadows-sylvia-plath-comments/">simple beauty of meadows</a> and the <a href="https://allpoetry.com/poem/8498359-Mushrooms-by-Sylvia-Plath">tenacity of fungi</a> as well as the splendours of <a href="https://allpoetry.com/Two-Campers-In-Cloud-Country">rugged wilderness</a>.</p>
<p>Plath’s fascination with the natural world began in childhood, as she makes clear in her essay <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/ocean-1212-w-by-sylvia-plath">Ocean 1212-W</a>, in which she details the importance of the sea to her poetic imagination. This interest in nature continued into adulthood, when she read the work of biologists such as Rachel Carson, whom she writes about in her <a href="https://www.faber.co.uk/journal/on-sylvia-plaths-letters/">letters</a>.</p>
<p>Any other poet with this background would at least be credited with a passing interest in the natural world. However, Plath’s untimely death by suicide has skewed much interpretation of her poetry. The well-versed argument that Plath only uses nature in her poetry as a “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-iG8AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false*%22">mirror to look deeper into herself</a>, has pervaded critical writing on her work from the 1960s to the 21st century.</p>
<p>It is this blinkered view of Plath which has led to an oversight of the ecological significance of her poetry. As we move past the 60th anniversary of Plath’s death, it is time to embrace more nuanced interpretations of her work and to reimagine what her poetic legacy might look like.</p>
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<h2>Grand-scale natural beauty</h2>
<p>Plath loved the vast landscapes of national parks as well as smaller-scale wildernesses like those of England’s Yorkshire moors. In letters from 1956, she describes "the great luminous emerald lights” of the Yorkshire countryside, concluding that she has “never been so happy” in her life as among the “wild, purple moors”.</p>
<p>These excerpts from her letters resonate with the celebratory assertion in the poem <a href="https://allpoetry.com/Wuthering-Heights">Wuthering Heights</a> that “there is no life higher than the grasstops or the hearts of sheep”.</p>
<p>She found similar beauty in the national parks of America and Canada, which she visited in the summer of 1959. In letters from this period, she remarks that she has never seen “such wonderful country anywhere in the world”. No doubt these experiences inspired the sublime depiction of the “dominance of rocks and woods” and “man-shaming clouds” in the poem <a href="https://allpoetry.com/Two-Campers-In-Cloud-Country">Two Campers in Cloud Country</a> as well as the spectacular “splurge of vermilions” she describes in the sunsets over Algonquin National Park in Canada.</p>
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<h2>Beauty in smaller places</h2>
<p>However, it is not these grand poetic depictions of the natural world which resonate the most with me. Even the most ardent city enthusiast can pause for a moment of wonder in front of millennia-old mountains, but few among us can render the seemingly prosaic aspects of the natural world with the lyrical grandeur evident in much of her writing.</p>
<p>Plath’s <a href="https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/reviving-the-journals-of-sylvia-plath">journal entries</a>, written from the Yaddo writers’ retreat in upstate New York in the autumn of 1959, demonstrate a sensitive interest in small details of the natural world which many deem mundane or insignifcant. Coming across a patch of toadstools in the gardens at Yaddo, she observes these “round battering rams” with their “orange ruddy tops” and “pale lemon stems”.</p>
<p>Her poem <a href="https://allpoetry.com/poem/8498359-Mushrooms-by-Sylvia-Plath">Mushrooms</a> captures much of this detail with the “soft fists” of the mushrooms which heave aside the garden “bedding”. “Nobody sees us”, the collective voice of the mushrooms in the poem declares, before claiming:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We shall by morning<br>
Inherit the earth.<br>
Our foot’s in the door. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this poem, Plath emphasises the magnificent elements of the natural world that many of us overlook or disregard. She highlights the dangers, as environmental historian <a href="https://williamcronon.net/writing/Trouble_with_Wilderness_Main.html">William Cronon suggests</a>, in appreciating only the kind of big majestic landscapes found in national parks. By doing so, Plath infers, we neglect the significance of nature in more familiar and ordinary places.</p>
<p>While Plath may well be remembered for the melancholic despair of <a href="https://allpoetry.com/Sheep-In-Fog">Sheep in Fog</a> or the angry, flame-haired women of poems such as <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49000/lady-lazarus">Lady Lazarus</a>, it is also important that she is remembered for the ecological significance of her writing.</p>
<p>Despite personal difficulties in her marriage and worsening mental health, Plath’s interest in nature continued to inspire much of her late poetry. Her 1962 poem <a href="https://genius.com/Sylvia-plath-among-the-narcissi-annotated">Among the Narcissi</a>, for example, captures a poignant but ordinary moment of kinship between an elderly man, who loves the “little flocks” of flowers in his garden, and the flowers themselves who “look up” from the flowerbeds towards him, “like children”.</p>
<p>Just like the small flock of lilac crocuses I was surprised to find growing amid the broken paving in my own much-neglected garden, Plath’s poetry continually surprises me with its uncanny ability to see the unseen in nature. Such deeply felt attunement to nature deserves to be recognised as part of the rich and multifaceted legacy of her work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200024/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nassim Jalali does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Plath’s sublime nature poetry deserves widespread appreciation for its unfettered joy and deep attunement to the natural world.Nassim Jalali, Final year PhD student researching Sylvia Plath's nature poetry, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1961292023-01-04T13:27:28Z2023-01-04T13:27:28ZWilliam Wordsworth and the Romantics anticipated today’s idea of a nature-positive life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502403/original/file-20221221-12-9wf35m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C6%2C1491%2C1129&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wiliam Wordsworth lived and wrote in Grasmere, in England's Lake District, from 1799-1808.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Grasmere_from_Stone_Arthur.jpg">Mick Knapton/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Musical performances usually happen in concert halls or clubs, but famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma is exploring a new venue: U.S. national parks. In a project called <a href="https://www.yo-yoma.com/news/yo-yo-ma-at-the-grand-canyon-big-time-and-our-common-nature/">Our Common Nature</a>, Ma is performing in settings such as the Great Smoky Mountains and the Grand Canyon. By making music and bringing people together in scenic places, Ma aims to help humans understand where they fit in the natural world.</p>
<p>“What if there’s a way that we can end up thinking and feeling and knowing that we are coming from nature, that we’re a part of nature, instead of just thinking: What can we use it for?” Ma mused in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/15/arts/music/yo-yo-ma-our-common-nature.html">recent New York Times article</a>. </p>
<p>There’s a buzzword for this outlook: nature-positive. And it’s cropping up at high-level meetings, including the 2021 <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/50363/g7-2030-nature-compact-pdf-120kb-4-pages-1.pdf">G-7 summit in Cornwall, England</a> and the COP15 biodiversity conference in Montreal that adopted an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/climate/biodiversity-cop15-montreal-30x30.html">ambitious framework for protecting nature</a> in December 2022.</p>
<p>As a group of environmental leaders <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/what-is-nature-positive-and-why-is-it-the-key-to-our-future/">wrote in 2021</a>: “A nature positive approach enriches biodiversity, stores carbon, purifies water and reduces pandemic risk. In short, a nature positive approach enhances the resilience of our planet and our societies.” </p>
<p>This is a dramatic shift from the mentality that has driven industrialization and global economic growth over the past 250 years. But it’s not new. As a researcher in the humanities and author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Wordsworth-Poet-Changed-World/dp/0300169647">Radical Wordsworth: The Poet Who Changed the World</a>,” I see nature positivity as a welcome revival of an outlook that English poet William Wordsworth and other Romantics proposed in the late 1700s.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Cellist Yo-Yo Ma plays ‘In the Gale,’ an original piece for The Birdsong Project, a collaboration to support bird conservation.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The birth of the sublime</h2>
<p>In the preindustrial era, when life was dominated by hard manual labor, wild nature wasn’t viewed as a terribly attractive place. In the 1720s, writer Daniel Defoe, <a href="https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/tour-through-the-whole-island-of-great-britain-ebook.html">touring across the island of Great Britain</a>, denounced the mountains and lakes of northwest England as “the wildest, most barren and frightful of any that I have passed over.” </p>
<p>The mountains were horrible to look at, impossible to pass over and, worst of all, had “no lead mines and veins of rich ore, no Coal Pits,” Defoe wrote. They were “all barren and wild, of no use or advantage either to Man or Beast.” </p>
<p>Attitudes began to change a generation later, with the expansion of a middle class that had the leisure and resources to enjoy a spot of tourism. Early guidebooks gave directions to viewpoints, or “stations,” that opened onto spectacularly beautiful vistas. </p>
<p>Philosophers and poets began to view natural phenomena such as ocean waves, lightning flashes over a mountain or the darkness of old-growth forests with awestruck pleasure rather than fear. They called these sights the “sublime,” a word that we still reach for when contemplating, say, the vastness of the Arctic or the Amazon. As <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/26/obituaries/barry-lopez-dead.html">Barry Lopez</a>, author of “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/103565/arctic-dreams-by-barry-lopez/">Arctic Dreams</a>,” once wrote, the “sublime encounter” with such places offers us a profound “resonance with a system of unmanaged, nonhuman-centered relationships”.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The aurora borealis, or northern lights, have become a modern tourist draw that attracts people to remote northern locations.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Romanticism emerged as the steam engine and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/spinning-jenny">spinning jenny</a> were driving mass urbanization. As workers flocked from farms to grimy cities in search of manufacturing jobs, a reaction set in: yearning for a return to nature. This became the hallmark of the <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/roma/hd_roma.htm">Romantic movement</a> that flourished across Europe through the mid-1800s. </p>
<h2>‘A sort of national property’</h2>
<p>Many writers, thinkers and artists contributed to this outpouring of nature-positivity. Beethoven’s <a href="https://www.npr.org/2006/06/12/5478661/beethovens-symphony-no-6-in-f-major-op-68">Pastoral Symphony</a> and the <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558">paintings of J. M. W. Turner</a> are examples. But in the English-speaking world, none were more influential than <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2020/04/radical-lessons-william-wordsworth-250-years-jonathan-bate-biography-review">Wordsworth</a> (1770-1850).</p>
<p>Born and raised in England’s Lake District, Wordsworth felt alienated from fellow students at Cambridge. As an aspiring journalist in London, he was stunned to discover that many people did not know their next door neighbor’s name. Only when Wordsworth returned to nature – first in the English west country and then when he went home to the Lakes – did he become his true self and write his greatest poetry. </p>
<p>In verse and prose, Wordsworth made a series of revolutionary claims. In the preface to his 1800 collection of poems, “<a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lyrical_Ballads_(1800)/Volume_2">Lyrical Ballads</a>,” he argued that men and women who live indigenously within a natural environment are uniquely in tune with “the essential passions of the heart” because their very humanity is “incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature.” </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502420/original/file-20221221-12-8i9x3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Portrait of a man with arms folded, standing on a rocky point" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502420/original/file-20221221-12-8i9x3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502420/original/file-20221221-12-8i9x3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502420/original/file-20221221-12-8i9x3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502420/original/file-20221221-12-8i9x3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502420/original/file-20221221-12-8i9x3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502420/original/file-20221221-12-8i9x3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502420/original/file-20221221-12-8i9x3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Wordsworth on Helvellyn,’ a mountain in the Lake District (1842), by Benjamin Robert Haydon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth#/media/File:Wordsworth_on_Helvellyn_by_Benjamin_Robert_Haydon.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In his “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/guide-to-the-lakes-9780198848097">Guide to the Lakes</a>,” Wordsworth warned against such innovations as planting non-native conifers that spoiled the beauty and eroded the soil of his native region. Instead, he proposed preserving places of outstanding natural beauty like the Lake District as “a sort of national property.” </p>
<p>This idea later would help to <a href="https://exhibits.lib.byu.edu/wordsworth/">inspire the U.S. national park system</a> and England’s <a href="https://www.hdrawnsley.com/index.php/2-uncategorised/111-no-man-is-an-island">National Trust</a>. Today the concepts of <a href="https://theconversation.com/protecting-30-of-earths-surface-for-nature-means-thinking-about-connections-near-and-far-180296">conservation zones and protected areas</a> are central to the goal of a nature-positive world.</p>
<p>Inspired by Wordsworth’s idea that the health of human society depends on a healthy relationship with the environment, the great Victorian social thinker <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/arts-blog/john-ruskin-environmental-campaigner">John Ruskin</a> turned economic theory on its head. In polemical pamphlets and public lectures, Ruskin argued that the basis of what was then known as “political economy” should be not labor and capital, production and consumption, but “<a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/energy-government-and-defense-magazines/white-thorn-blossom">Pure Air, Water, and Earth</a>.” </p>
<p>Almost exactly 150 years later, on July 28, 2022, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a <a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3982508?ln=en">resolution</a> recognizing a universal human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CmTUNuTu27X/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Colonial conservation?</h2>
<p>Wordsworth’s influence on the conservation movement wasn’t entirely benign. Late in life, he lamented that his very advocacy of the beauty of the Lake District had brought in a mass tourist industry that had the potential to <a href="https://www.johndobson.info/Tourists/NumberedPages/Page_39.php">destroy the very beauty he sought to preserve</a>. </p>
<p>Furthermore, protecting wild places risks displacing indigenous peoples who have lived in harmony with the land for centuries. Creating conservation zones and protected areas in the rain forests of Central America and the Amazon basin has sometimes <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/12/08/conservation-zones-exclude-indigenous-people-drive-deforestation-report/">shut out local tribes</a>. </p>
<p>Organizations such as the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/sierra-club-apologizes-founder-john-muir-s-racist-views-n1234695">Sierra Club</a> and the <a href="https://theecologist.org/2016/mar/29/century-theft-indians-national-park-service">U.S. National Park Service</a> are now striving to transcend this long history of “<a href="https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/conservation-policy-and-indigenous-peoples">colonial conservation</a>.” The importance of working together with indigenous peoples and learning from their time-honored values and conservation practices received new attention at major conferences on climate change and biodiversity in 2022, although some observers argued that the resulting commitments <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/words-that-didnt-make-the-cut-what-happened-to-indigenous-rights-at-cop27/">fell short</a> of <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/cop15-biodiversity-conference-fails-protect-indigenous-peoples-rights">what was needed</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1605112015835566081"}"></div></p>
<p>In my view, Wordsworth knew that the truly nature-positive are those whose livelihoods and senses of self and community are wholly bound to their native places. As he wrote in “<a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lyrical_Ballads_(1800)/Volume_2/Michael">Michael</a>,” the great pastoral poem at the climax of “Lyrical Ballads”:</p>
<pre class="highlight plaintext"><code> And grossly that man errs, who should suppose
That the green valleys, and the streams and rocks,
Were things indifferent to the Shepherd’s thoughts.
... these fields, these hills
Which were his living Being even more
Than his own blood—what could they less? had laid
Strong hold on his affections, were to him
A pleasurable feeling of blind love,
The pleasure which there is in life itself.
</code></pre><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196129/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Bate does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The idea that human activity threatens nature, and that it is important to protect wild places, dates back to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.Jonathan Bate, Foundation Professor of Environmental Humanities, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1884582022-09-07T23:48:20Z2022-09-07T23:48:20ZFrom microbes to forest bathing, here are 4 ways healing nature is vital to our recovery from COVID-19<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482424/original/file-20220902-11-4yd8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5464%2C3631&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been more than two years since the World Health Organization <a href="https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020">declared</a> the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of us vividly recalls the first confirmed cases being reported in our home towns. COVID-19 spread across the planet at lightning speed, and the confirmed death toll is approaching <a href="https://covid19.who.int/">6.5 million</a>. Communities and economies around the world have been devastated, and many societies need a recovery plan. </p>
<p>A growing number of <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00031-0/fulltext">scientists</a>, including us in an <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(22)00171-1/fulltext">article published today</a> in The Lancet Planetary Health, argue protecting and restoring nature can help societies recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and even help prevent future pandemics. Thriving ecosystems are vital for humans and the rest of nature. </p>
<p>The ongoing destruction of nature is a recipe for disaster. <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00031-0/fulltext">Research points to direct links</a> between the destruction of nature and infectious disease outbreaks such as COVID-19. </p>
<p>For instance, the removal of rainforests for agriculture and new towns increases our contact with wildlife that host novel viruses – the kind that “jump the species barrier”. Some cause major disease <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8337">outbreaks like COVID-19</a>. </p>
<p>In our Lancet Planetary Health paper, we use COVID-19 as a case study to demonstrate how restoring ecosystems can help to combat the health and social problems associated with pandemics. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stealth-privatisation-in-iconic-national-parks-threatens-public-access-to-natures-health-boost-188063">'Stealth privatisation' in iconic national parks threatens public access to nature's health boost</a>
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<h2>We are running out of time to restore ecosystems</h2>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_ecology">Ecosystem restoration</a> is the repair of natural systems – such as forests, grasslands and coral reefs – that have been damaged or destroyed. Unfortunately, human activities such as urbanisation, deforestation and pollution could leave <a href="https://www.thegef.org/what-we-do/topics/land-degradation">95% of the planet’s land</a> severely damaged by 2050. </p>
<p>The UN has declared 2021 to 2030 the <a href="https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/">Decade on Ecosystem Restoration</a>. The declaration reflects the growing urgency and scale of ecosystem restoration that we must undertake. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1482351990361538562"}"></div></p>
<p>There are several ways in which protecting and restoring nature are vital to humanity’s recovery from COVID-19.</p>
<h2>1. Enhancing the immune system</h2>
<p>The environment is brimful of microscopic life forms: dense clouds of bacteria, tiny fungi, algae and other life forms live in the soil, plants, water and air. Growing evidence suggests exposure to a diverse range of these invisible critters from an early age is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147651322007400">vital to our health</a>. </p>
<p>This exposure “primes” our immune systems and allows them to build strong armies of cells that protect us from pathogens. Indeed, having a healthy immune system is important in combating diseases such as COVID-19. </p>
<p>However, the diversity of these beneficial microbes is often much lower in degraded ecosystems than in more natural and diverse areas, such as forests with many different species of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-89065-y">plants and animals</a>. Therefore, restoring degraded ecosystems is important for both wildlife and our immune systems. </p>
<p>Furthermore, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/039463200902200410">research</a> suggests exposure to chemicals emitted by some plants – called phytoncides – can boost our immune system and help us fight off viral infections. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-trees-in-your-local-park-help-protect-you-from-disease-160312">How the trees in your local park help protect you from disease</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>2. Letting nature be thy medicine</h2>
<p>Spending time in natural environments is widely recognised as important for our health and wellbeing. After all, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969720311372">we are part of nature</a>! </p>
<p><a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/10/3460/htm">Evidence</a> shows engaging with natural spaces such as forests, meadows and lakes can improve our mental health, reduce blood pressure and enhance our recovery from stress. In Japan, forest bathing – <em>shinrin-yoku</em> – is <a href="https://www.weforum.org/videos/2801-2021-the-japanese-practice-of-forest-bathing-is-scientifically-proven-to-improve-your-health-folder-uplink">officially endorsed</a> as a form of nature therapy. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/5/2227">another of our studies</a>, we showed spending time in nature helped people cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>However, many people don’t have easy access to high-quality, biodiverse environments. Restoring these environments in urban areas is fundamental to people’s ability to cope with current and future pandemics. And some cities are doing just that; the <a href="https://www.adelaidenationalparkcity.org/">Adelaide National Park City</a> is a case in point.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Adelaide became the second city in the world to gain National Park City status in December 2021.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/1-in-4-australians-is-lonely-quality-green-spaces-in-our-cities-offer-a-solution-188007">1 in 4 Australians is lonely. Quality green spaces in our cities offer a solution</a>
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<h2>3. Reducing the risk of future pandemics</h2>
<p>Restoring wild places and reducing human-wildlife interactions could keep diseases at bay and minimise the risk of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2530064420300584">spillover events</a>. These events occur when a pathogen in one species jumps to another, such as humans. This pathogen can then wreak havoc on human populations and lead to the next pandemic. </p>
<p>It’s important to prevent further encroachment by humans into these wild places for our own sake! </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/historic-amazon-rainforest-fires-threaten-climate-and-raise-risk-of-new-diseases-146720">Historic Amazon rainforest fires threaten climate and raise risk of new diseases</a>
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</em>
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<h2>4. Improving social equity</h2>
<p>The pandemic shone a spotlight on social inequity and its impacts on public health. Many people in deprived areas:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>were <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(22)00007-X/fulltext">more easily infected</a> by the SARS-CoV-2 virus</p></li>
<li><p>suffered from <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(22)00007-X/fulltext">more severe COVID-19 symptoms</a></p></li>
<li><p>had <a href="https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/msystems.01240-21">fewer opportunities</a> to enhance their general wellbeing. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Our paper discusses the importance of ensuring equal access to biodiverse environments. Restoring ecosystems can improve people’s living environments and create “green job” opportunities in deprived areas. Actions such as tree planting, ecotherapy and environmental management are emerging areas of job growth. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-cities-can-add-accessible-green-space-in-a-post-coronavirus-world-139194">How cities can add accessible green space in a post-coronavirus world</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>However, we also have a warning: creating green spaces in urban areas can lead to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7908481/">deprived residents being displaced</a> by more affluent ones. Effective safeguards against this gentrification are needed. </p>
<p>Ecosystem restoration should be viewed as a public health intervention. Urgent policy action is required at all levels, from local government to intergovernmental platforms, to transform social, economic and financial models to deliver a simultaneous healthy recovery of ecosystems and humanity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188458/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jake M Robinson is affiliated with Flinders University and is a member of the UNFCCC Resilience Frontiers think tank. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Daniels receives funding from the Department for Environment and Water South Australia via the Koala Life not for profit foundation and from the Australian Research Council. He is Chair of the Green Adelaide Landscape Board and holds Adjunct Professor positions at the University of South Australia and Adelaide University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Breed receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Flinders Foundation, and New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment. </span></em></p>Exposure to diverse microbes boosts our immunity, while spending time in nature restores wellbeing. And COVID reminds us of the risks of new viruses when we intrude on and degrade natural habitats.Jake M Robinson, Ecologist and Researcher, Flinders UniversityChristopher Daniels, Professor of Biology, University of South AustraliaMartin Breed, Senior Lecturer in Biology, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1699452021-11-11T18:57:07Z2021-11-11T18:57:07ZFriday essay: beautiful, available and empty – how landscape photographers reinvented the colonial project in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430163/original/file-20211104-19-177595g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=289%2C260%2C4182%2C3378&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anson Brothers Studio, Fern Tree Gully, Hobart Town, Tasmania, 1887. Albumen print. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Colonial history overflows with commodities. From the early 1800s, wool generated extraordinary wealth for squatters and pastoralists and substantial investment in the Australian colonies. In the 1850s, gold motivated tens of thousands of people to work the earth or service the diggings. Coal, copper, tin, wheat, barley and cotton all assumed importance at different times.</p>
<p>In those great cathedrals of late 19th century colonial self-representation, the International Exhibitions, any visitor would have immediately noticed the way New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania sought to identify with the commodities produced in these places. </p>
<p>In a photograph from 1879, the NSW Department of Mines filled its portion of the exhibition building, <a href="https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/magazine/galleries/garden-palace-fire">the Garden Palace</a>, with gold ingots, silver ores and samples of tin. On the balconies above were coal sections and geological maps. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430135/original/file-20211104-13-1tijeeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430135/original/file-20211104-13-1tijeeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430135/original/file-20211104-13-1tijeeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430135/original/file-20211104-13-1tijeeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430135/original/file-20211104-13-1tijeeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430135/original/file-20211104-13-1tijeeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430135/original/file-20211104-13-1tijeeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430135/original/file-20211104-13-1tijeeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The prominent mining displays inside the Garden Palace, 1879.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Walking through these displays a visitor would also have noticed walls of landscape photographs, which, mirroring the extractive logic of settler colonialism itself, worked to bring all these raw materials together in a vision of abundant nature. </p>
<p>Photographers captured images of budding settlements, seemingly empty vistas, and stunning panoramas of emerging colonial cities. </p>
<p>The increasing popularity of these photographs throughout the final decades of the 19th century shows colonial expansion was not just generated by the search for raw materials to extract and exploit. Colonial Australia was also a product of vision and imagery: literally developed through chemicals, glass and light. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430946/original/file-20211109-23-jp7guy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430946/original/file-20211109-23-jp7guy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430946/original/file-20211109-23-jp7guy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=127&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430946/original/file-20211109-23-jp7guy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=127&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430946/original/file-20211109-23-jp7guy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=127&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430946/original/file-20211109-23-jp7guy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=159&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430946/original/file-20211109-23-jp7guy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=159&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430946/original/file-20211109-23-jp7guy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=159&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Charles Bayliss and Bernhardt Otto Holtermann, Panorama of Sydney and the Harbour, New South Wales, 1875. Albumen prints on cloth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Art Gallery of New South Wales</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I have studied over 2000 early landscape photographs, taken by six settler photographers between the 1850s and the 1930s. They show how colonisation was re-enacted in the imagination of places, rather than simply through the movement of people from one site to another, the <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/">Lockean</a> mixture of labour and earth, or the transfer of deeds.</p>
<p>Visions of nature allowed for a different kind of investment in the colonial earth. They paid off in feelings of belonging even for those who never turned a sod. These photos reveal, as the American environmental historian <a href="https://www.williamcronon.net/writing/Trouble_with_Wilderness_Main.html">William Cronon has insisted</a>, that nature itself is a profoundly human artefact. </p>
<p>In settler colonies, landscape photography framed nature as beautiful, available and empty. In Victoria and Tasmania especially, landscape photography flourished. And although this mode of photography was not uniquely antipodean – it was pioneered, then perfected in the American West by photographers like <a href="https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/1953/carleton-watkins-american-1829-1916/">Carleton Watkins</a> and <a href="https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/eadweard_muybridge/">Eadweard Muybridge</a> – it did have remarkable purchase in the Australian colonies. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430941/original/file-20211109-21-yv409f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430941/original/file-20211109-21-yv409f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430941/original/file-20211109-21-yv409f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430941/original/file-20211109-21-yv409f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430941/original/file-20211109-21-yv409f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430941/original/file-20211109-21-yv409f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430941/original/file-20211109-21-yv409f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430941/original/file-20211109-21-yv409f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">J. W. Lindt, Lindt’s Hermitage, 1894. Gelatin silver print.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A photographic sleight of hand</h2>
<p>Figures such as <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/caire-nicholas-john-3139">Nicholas Caire</a>, <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lindt-john-william-4023">John Lindt</a>, and <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/beattie-john-watt-5171">John Beattie</a> took up the camera to encourage settlers to feel at home in Australian environments. This perspective disguised the ancestral ownership and continuing presence of First Nations peoples, turning their homelands into a wilderness through a photographic sleight of hand.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-knowledge-and-the-persistence-of-the-wilderness-myth-165164">Indigenous knowledge and the persistence of the 'wilderness' myth</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The best example of this was in Victoria, where Caire and Lindt began framing the stretch of bush between Healesville and Narbethong as a kind of wilderness retreat from the late 1870s. </p>
<p>Caire, born in Guernsey in 1837, came to this collaborative work via South Australia, the forests of Gippsland and the Goldfields. Lindt, originally from Frankfurt, had just finished photographing Bundjalung and Gumbaynggir people along the Clarence River in northern NSW. </p>
<p>Around 1878 Caire captured Fairy Scene at the Landslip, Blacks’ Spur, which quickly became one of his most popular photographs. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430127/original/file-20211104-25-1rmsuv6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430127/original/file-20211104-25-1rmsuv6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430127/original/file-20211104-25-1rmsuv6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430127/original/file-20211104-25-1rmsuv6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430127/original/file-20211104-25-1rmsuv6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430127/original/file-20211104-25-1rmsuv6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=973&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430127/original/file-20211104-25-1rmsuv6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=973&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430127/original/file-20211104-25-1rmsuv6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=973&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nicholas Caire, Fairy Scene at the Landslip, Blacks’ Spur, c. 1878.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Gallery of Victoria</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In it, Caire focuses on a glade of tree-ferns clustered on the side of a gully. Writing in 1904, Caire and Lindt boasted about the wildness of this pocket of the <a href="https://insidestory.org.au/why-we-need-a-great-forest-national-park/">Great Forest</a>, the ancient age of the trees, and the “refreshing” seclusion of Fernshaw. Lindt wrote that the allure of places like this came back to their capacity to “carry you back to the morning of time”.</p>
<p>The empty natures of the Yarra Ranges relied on the removal and containment of Woiwurrung, Bunurong, and Taungurong people at the Coranderrk mission. Located just kilometres away from Lindt and Caire’s “refreshing” forest, Coranderrk helped the photographers create a partition between the environment and its ancestral owners.</p>
<p>The mission became a complementary site of interest. When promoting the natural features of the Yarra Ranges, Lindt and Caire wrote about Coranderrk as a place where tourists could mimic the anthropologist, just as they mimicked the geographer or explorer while traipsing through sylvan glades or gazing up at giant mountain ash.</p>
<p>At about the same time that Caire and Lindt were developing their visions of nature in the Yarra Ranges, the photographer Fred Kruger was taking influential shots of <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-140536020/view">life on the reservation</a>. One of the key challenges for aspiring landscape photographers in the 1870s and 1880s was to deal with this presence of Aboriginal people in landscapes that were becoming coveted for their natural beauty. </p>
<p>Caire and Lindt took up an established tradition of <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/eye-contact">photography at Coranderrk</a>, combining it with a new interest in wilderness, balancing the apparent contradiction between Indigenous presence and absence.</p>
<h2>The Tasmanian sublime</h2>
<p>In Tasmania, too, photographers began constructing a similar wilderness tradition from the 1870s. Emigrating from Scotland in 1878, John Beattie, the so-called “prince of landscape photographers in Australasia”, settled with his family in New Norfolk, about 30 kilometres up the Derwent valley from Hobart.</p>
<p>This was a perfect location for a budding photographer, and Beattie made attractive pictures of the river and its hop gardens in the 1890s, but the interior of the island offered a different order of beauty. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430942/original/file-20211109-19-1okq6ov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430942/original/file-20211109-19-1okq6ov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430942/original/file-20211109-19-1okq6ov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430942/original/file-20211109-19-1okq6ov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430942/original/file-20211109-19-1okq6ov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430942/original/file-20211109-19-1okq6ov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430942/original/file-20211109-19-1okq6ov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430942/original/file-20211109-19-1okq6ov.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This photograph frames a harmonic interaction of settlement, agriculture and geography on the lowlands along the Derwent River. John Beattie, Hop Garden, New Norfolk, 1895–1898. Albumen print.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Art Gallery of New South Wales</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1879 Beattie began making expeditions into the bush around the valley, onto the central highlands, and eventually all the way to the remote Lake St. Clair. In 1882 he joined the Anson Brothers’ photographic studio and quickly became their most important artist. </p>
<p>An Anson Brothers image from 1887 is quite likely Beattie’s work, showing a stand of ferns on the Huon Road. Unlike Caire’s shot, however, this image includes a group of settlers enjoying exactly the kind of immersion in nature that these photographs were designed to evoke. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430943/original/file-20211109-17-9x9nz4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430943/original/file-20211109-17-9x9nz4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430943/original/file-20211109-17-9x9nz4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430943/original/file-20211109-17-9x9nz4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430943/original/file-20211109-17-9x9nz4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430943/original/file-20211109-17-9x9nz4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430943/original/file-20211109-17-9x9nz4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430943/original/file-20211109-17-9x9nz4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Taken on the Huon Road, this photograph depicts the kind of vegetation that could be found in pockets of bush around the Beattie’s property at New Norfolk. Anson Brothers Studio, Fern Tree Gully, Hobart Town, Tasmania, 1887. Albumen print.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Art Gallery of New South Wales</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many of Beattie’s photographs are <a href="https://www-tandfonline-com.wwwproxy1.library.unsw.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/14490854.2017.1286710">deeply Romantic</a>. Between 1896 and 1906 he conducted regular presentations in Hobart and Launceston based on the wild features of the Tasmanian landscape, cultivating a high wilderness aesthetic in his magic lantern shows. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-journey-through-the-apocalypse-85829">Friday essay: journey through the apocalypse</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Photographs of Lake Marion and the Du Cane Range and another of Lake Perry and The Pinnacles trade in the sublime. Beattie evoked the great American <a href="http://thoreau.library.ucsb.edu/thoreau_life.html">transcendentalist poets</a> in his respect for the mountaintop, which often moved him to wordlessness: “I am struck dumb, but oh! my soul sings.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430130/original/file-20211104-13-1qvw194.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430130/original/file-20211104-13-1qvw194.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430130/original/file-20211104-13-1qvw194.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430130/original/file-20211104-13-1qvw194.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430130/original/file-20211104-13-1qvw194.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430130/original/file-20211104-13-1qvw194.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430130/original/file-20211104-13-1qvw194.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430130/original/file-20211104-13-1qvw194.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Beattie, Lake Marion, Du Cane Range (Tasmania), 1890s. Albumen print. The Richard Ledgar Collection of Photographs, 1858–1910, National Library of Australia, Canberra.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Library of Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These sublime sentiments relied on old Romantic ideas that stretched back to <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/the-romantic-sublime-r1109221">Edmund Burke</a> and <a href="https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-29973;jsessionid=00B6CDFB13369C7DC04B00704DEF1830">William Wordsworth</a>, but they rested just as heavily on new experiences of space. Beattie’s breakthrough years were in the 1890s, a decade in which depictions of wilderness in Australian Romantic painting went into terminal decline and were replaced by photographic visions of nature.</p>
<p>Romanticism, through photography, came to influence how environments were envisioned and how histories of dispossession were remembered. The high wilderness imagery of settler photography came to support a fantasy of spatial control, delivering reproducible, enduring symbols of the natural world.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430132/original/file-20211104-13-csbip6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430132/original/file-20211104-13-csbip6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430132/original/file-20211104-13-csbip6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430132/original/file-20211104-13-csbip6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430132/original/file-20211104-13-csbip6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430132/original/file-20211104-13-csbip6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430132/original/file-20211104-13-csbip6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430132/original/file-20211104-13-csbip6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This photograph of Lake Perry in the Hartz Mountains gives a good sense of the gradations of the Tasmanian highlands and the dramatic topography that attracted photographers. John Beattie, Lake Perry and Pinnacles looking Nth, Hartz Mountains, c. 1900. Glass Lantern Slide. Tasmanian Views Collection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library of Victoria</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Aboriginal extinction and Romantic communion</h2>
<p>Just as Caire did, Beattie divided his visions of nature and his portraits of native people. He was an insatiable and opportunistic collector of photographs of the “last” Tasmanians, leaning into and commercialising the myth of Tasmanian Aboriginal extinction. </p>
<p>Sometimes advertisements for these pictures featured on the back covers of Beattie’s landscape collections, gently leading interested audiences to the other side of the partition.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-painting-the-last-victorian-aborigines-79905">Friday essay: painting 'The Last Victorian Aborigines'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Most of Beattie’s photographs of Aboriginal people were simple reproductions of the portraits that <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/nixon-francis-russell-2509">Francis Nixon</a>, the first Bishop of Tasmania and amateur photographer, took in 1858 at <a href="https://www.aboriginalheritage.tas.gov.au/Documents/AHT%20Fact%20Sheet%20-%20Historical%20Places%20putalina.pdf">putalina (Oyster Cove)</a>. Nixon took pictures of the few remaining Aboriginal people, who had survived exile on Wybelenna Station on Flinders Island and a <a href="http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n4260/pdf/ch06.pdf">decade of surveillance</a> at the former penal probation station just south of Hobart.</p>
<p>In the 1890s Beattie copied these images and labelled each of them with the phrase “the last of the race”. </p>
<p>It is no simple coincidence that this language was adopted by one of Australasia’s most successful landscape photographers. Aboriginal extinction and Romantic communion with the wilderness were the twin fantasies that shaped settler visions of nature in the late 19th century. </p>
<p>This dynamic influenced landscape photography well beyond the Australian colonies. Across the Tasman in New Zealand, the Dunedin photographer Alfred Burton became famous for an 1885 album called <a href="https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/66581">The Maori at Home</a>, which delicately balanced ethnographic and wilderness imagery, much as Caire did. </p>
<p>Burton used the camera to carve the the local Māori from their ancestral homes, creating a <a href="https://www-tandfonline-com.wwwproxy1.library.unsw.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/1031461X.2019.1592205">“terra incognita”</a>. He created visual partitions between the traditional custodians, Ngāti Maniopoto, and the landscapes of the Waikato and divided the people of Ngāti Tūwharetoa from the monumental geography around Tongariro, Ngāuruhoe, and Ruapehu. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430133/original/file-20211104-23-jg2ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430133/original/file-20211104-23-jg2ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430133/original/file-20211104-23-jg2ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430133/original/file-20211104-23-jg2ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430133/original/file-20211104-23-jg2ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430133/original/file-20211104-23-jg2ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430133/original/file-20211104-23-jg2ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430133/original/file-20211104-23-jg2ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Burton and Payton are pictured here outside a whare in Taumaranui, near the centre of the King Country. Alfred Burton, Burton Brothers Studio,</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photography Collection, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Burton and a party of adventurers returned a year later, in 1886, to immerse themselves more fully in these sublime environments. More settlers would follow in Burton’s footsteps from the mid 1890s, when, after a long struggle with Ngāti Tūwharetoa, the heights around Tongariro became New Zealand’s first national park. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430134/original/file-20211104-23-14a05qg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430134/original/file-20211104-23-14a05qg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430134/original/file-20211104-23-14a05qg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430134/original/file-20211104-23-14a05qg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430134/original/file-20211104-23-14a05qg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430134/original/file-20211104-23-14a05qg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430134/original/file-20211104-23-14a05qg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430134/original/file-20211104-23-14a05qg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alfred Burton, Burton Brothers Studio, Ngauruhoe—(Tongariro)—Active Volcano, 1880s, 1885. Black-and-white print.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photography Collection. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The same kind of processes shaped settler attitudes to one of the United States’ most famous national parks, Yosemite, where photographers like Watkins and Muybridge erected similar partitions between their natural and human subjects. </p>
<p>This division was spectacularly represented in a set of photographs that used the still waters of Yosemite’s reflective lakes to capture stunning landmarks. In these works, the myth of empty wilderness was turned into the beautiful motif of a glassy lake. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430157/original/file-20211104-27-vsor4n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430157/original/file-20211104-27-vsor4n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430157/original/file-20211104-27-vsor4n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430157/original/file-20211104-27-vsor4n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430157/original/file-20211104-27-vsor4n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430157/original/file-20211104-27-vsor4n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430157/original/file-20211104-27-vsor4n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430157/original/file-20211104-27-vsor4n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eadweard Muybridge, Mirror Lake, Valley of the Yosemite, 1872. Albumen silver print.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We might expect that Caire, Beattie, and Burton consciously adopted this technique from their American kin but there is no evidence this was the case. </p>
<h2>Control over land</h2>
<p>It’s more likely that comparable visions of nature developed in parallel, drawing from similar histories of dispossession and environmental transformation in different settler colonies. </p>
<p>In a whole range of places where pastoralists failed to graze their herds and geologists struggled to identify economic deposits, photographers helped colonists continue the cultural work of establishing dominion over stolen land. </p>
<p>The earliest visions of nature in Australia perfectly captured this drive, fixing its orientation to the physical world and its settler colonial history onto glass negatives, lantern slides and paper cards.</p>
<p>And here is where the commodities come back into the story. Settlers adopted the holistic vision of landscape photography to exert control over land. Figures like Caire and Beattie perfected a kind of environmental image-making and storytelling that encouraged settlers to feel an affinity with the natural world.</p>
<p>Their customers were drawn to breathe in the highly oxygenated forest air or pursue the Romantic thrill of summiting a mountain. These experiences became a commodity in and of themselves, and so did the photographs documenting them. They adorned sitting rooms, galleries and exhibition halls – summoning memories and lending a new assurance to the settler enterprise.</p>
<p><em>Jarrod Hore’s book, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520381261/visions-of-nature">Visions of Nature: How Landscape Photography Shaped Settler Colonialism</a>, is available for pre-order now.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169945/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jarrod Hore receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>A study of over 2000 early landscape photographs shows how nature was framed as a wilderness, empty of First Nations peoples.Jarrod Hore, Co-Director & Postdoctoral Fellow, New Earth Histories Research Program, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1665032021-09-09T05:08:57Z2021-09-09T05:08:57ZCounselling almost always happens in a room — what if more people had the option of going outside?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418566/original/file-20210831-19-1q4q4mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Luis Ascui/ AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you peered through the keyhole of any <a href="https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/psychotherapy">psychotherapy</a> session, chances are they would all look very similar. </p>
<p>There may be nearly 1,000 types of therapies — such as <a href="https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/cognitive-behaviour-therapy-cbt">cognitive behavioural</a> and <a href="https://www.aaft.asn.au/aaft/family-therapy/">family therapy</a> — but you will typically find a client and practitioner in a room, sitting opposite each other, talking. </p>
<p>Even if you travelled back in time to the 1960s, the 1940s, or even visited Sigmund Freud at the turn of the 20th century, things would also appear similar. </p>
<p>But this is starting to change. </p>
<h2>What is outdoor therapy?</h2>
<p>During COVID, many therapists took their sessions online. But others went outside, sitting on a park bench with their clients or taking a leisurely stroll through a nearby park. </p>
<p>This added to the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Outdoor-Therapies-An-Introduction-to-Practices-Possibilities-and-Critical/Harper-Dobud/p/book/9780367365707">existing use</a> of the outdoors for therapeutic purposes, including camping trips, canoeing, rock climbing, gardening, and simple walk-and-talk therapy sessions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman walking in a field." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418412/original/file-20210830-13-1m3ul4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418412/original/file-20210830-13-1m3ul4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418412/original/file-20210830-13-1m3ul4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418412/original/file-20210830-13-1m3ul4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418412/original/file-20210830-13-1m3ul4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418412/original/file-20210830-13-1m3ul4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418412/original/file-20210830-13-1m3ul4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Time in nature can boost the restorative potential of a therapy session.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Ross/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Outdoor therapies use outdoor excursions to address behavioural and mental health issues. Whether with individuals or in groups, practitioners combine outdoor activity with talking therapies.</p>
<p>We are also seeing increasing evidence outdoor therapy can improve well-being, decrease symptoms of post-traumatic stress and increase the quality of people’s participation for those who have experienced multiple therapy treatment failures.</p>
<p>Recipients of outdoor therapy have reported enjoying the shared adventure of being outside with their therapist. The time in nature, <a href="https://time.com/4405827/the-healing-power-of-nature/">with its own remedial effects</a>, also boosts the restorative potential of the sessions. </p>
<h2>Not just a crisis response</h2>
<p>Of course, using outdoor settings for healing is nothing new — First Nations people have appreciated the benefits of this for tens of thousands of years. </p>
<p>In the western world, there is also a tradition of outdoor healing. In 1901 Manhattan State Hospital developed “<a href="https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/the-nature-cure-how-the-great-outdoors-is-transforming-treatment-of-mental-health">tent therapy</a>” when patients in the psychiatric units developed tuberculosis. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-safeguard-childrens-mental-health-during-covid-19-parents-must-look-after-their-own-143897">To safeguard children's mental health during COVID-19, parents must look after their own</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Five years later, an earthquake damaged the San Francisco Agnew Asylum requiring patients to live in outdoor settings. Adapting to these unforeseen circumstances facilitated improvements in mental and physical health, and reductions in violent behaviour. </p>
<p>But outdoor therapy should not just be a crisis response, it should be as accessible as sitting on a counsellor’s couch or engaging in telehealth services.</p>
<h2>Help for veterans, people with disability</h2>
<p>Previously, outdoor therapies have been considered as something just to help <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/08/when-wilderness-boot-camps-take-tough-love-too-far/375582/">troubled young people</a> (which has been accompanied by some valid ethical and safety <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14733250211020088?journalCode=qswa">concerns</a> in cases where “tough love” has been pushed too far). But there is growing evidence it can be applied more broadly. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hairdressers-in-rural-australia-end-up-being-counsellors-too-70275">Hairdressers in rural Australia end up being counsellors too</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Combat <a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/environment/veterans-outdoor-therapy-could-become-law/">veterans</a>, <a href="https://projectventure.org/">Indigenous populations</a>, people with <a href="https://awalkonwater.org/mission-vision/">disabilities</a>, people with <a href="https://tipoftoes.com/">terminal illnesses</a> are among those who have shown benefit from outdoor therapy. </p>
<p>For some people, traditional talk therapy does not suit. Sitting across from a therapist may seem too confrontational, or there is an expectation that business-as-usual therapy is ineffective. For example, we know that for many young people, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2952541/">therapy attempts fail</a>. Taking therapy outdoors has demonstrated outcomes on par with tightly-controlled clinical trials, with regards to <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-29032-001">improved well-being and symptom reduction</a>. </p>
<h2>Increasing options and access</h2>
<p>But there are compelling reasons why we should expand this option to anyone seeking psychological help. Beyond the therapeutic benefits, there are access benefits as well. </p>
<p>While there is no doubt what many experience in psychotherapists’ offices <a href="https://www.thecoloradocenter.com/MillerHubbleChowSeidel2013.pdf">is effective</a> — and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33826190/">online therapy</a> can also work — the small take up rate of therapies combined with the high indicators of mental health in society show that we have an engagement problem. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Surfer prepares to enter the water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418411/original/file-20210830-12-qvv3e1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418411/original/file-20210830-12-qvv3e1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418411/original/file-20210830-12-qvv3e1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418411/original/file-20210830-12-qvv3e1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418411/original/file-20210830-12-qvv3e1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418411/original/file-20210830-12-qvv3e1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418411/original/file-20210830-12-qvv3e1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many people who need therapy do not seek it, or have problems accessing something that works for them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Erik Anderson/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, around 20% of Australians experienced diagnosable mental health concerns each year, but <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/mental-health-services/mental-health-services-in-australia/report-contents/summary-of-mental-health-services-in-australia">only about 11%</a> received a Medicare-subsidised mental health service in 2019-20. </p>
<p>Access is clearly an issue. Sometimes this is because costs of treatment are high, despite subsidies, and waitlists are long (something that has become an <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/unethical-and-cruel-victorians-wait-months-for-help-as-mental-health-sector-hits-limit-20210716-p58a9j.html">even greater problem</a> during COVID).</p>
<p>We also know that different people may need different treatment options. In the United Kingdom, a huge investment in mental health care in 2008 <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26635236/">saw 56%</a> of those who accessed a service stop using it after a single visit. Even when therapy was free and accessible, engagement was a serious issue. </p>
<h2>Increasing accessibility</h2>
<p>A common concern regarding therapy outdoors is confidentiality. What happens if someone sees your client during a walk in the park? </p>
<p>But taking therapy outside can actually appear less visible as there is no need to walk into the local psychotherapy clinic from the street to sit in a small, crowded waiting room. </p>
<p>If we want more people to seek help for their mental health, get that help and stick with it, we need more options. </p>
<p>And an obvious one begins with opening the counselling room door. </p>
<p><em>If this article has raised issues for you or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyondblue on 1300 22 4636.</em></p>
<p>_This piece was produced as part of <a href="https://socialsciences.org.au/socialsciencesweek/">Social Sciences Week</a>, running 6-12 September. A full list of 70 events can be found <a href="https://socialsciences.org.au/socialsciencesweek/events/">here</a>. _</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166503/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Will W Dobud does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>During COVID, many therapists took their sessions online. But others went outside with their clients, taking a leisurely stroll through a near-by park.Will W Dobud, Social Work Lecturer, Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1615092021-05-31T20:08:47Z2021-05-31T20:08:47ZIf you’re planning to hike this winter, invest in the right gear. Being unprepared for Australia’s harsh terrain can be deadly<p>Two years ago, emergency workers rescued a hiker in Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. He had spent <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-17/tas-missing-bushwalker-speaks-out-about-remarkable-rescue/11317770">nine days in his tent</a> in freezing weather with dangerous blizzards, trying to keep dry from infiltrating snow and rain. </p>
<p>Because he was an experienced and prepared hiker, he had the skills and gear needed to keep himself safe and relatively warm until rescuers could find him. His preparedness ultimately led to his survival.</p>
<p>Such experiences, however, don’t always have happy endings. </p>
<p>Of the hikers, trekkers and bushwalkers who need rescuing from Australia’s harsh wilderness each year, a small proportion never make it back alive. And as we head into winter, the likelihood of accidents increases, especially in places like Tasmania.</p>
<p>Our recent <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213078021000244">research on hikers in Tasmania</a> shows just how important preparedness is to prevent injuries and deaths. So let’s look at what it means to be prepared for a hike and who’s most at risk. </p>
<h2>Slips, drops, hypothermia</h2>
<p>Tasmania is quickly becoming known worldwide as a hiking destination, with Cradle Mountain National Park the crown jewel, from short two-hour walks to the multi-day Overland track. </p>
<p>In 2017-18, an estimated <a href="https://parks.tas.gov.au/Documents/Visitors%20to%20selected%20parks%20and%20reserves%202017-18.pdf">280,000</a> people visited Cradle Mountain, and 9,000 hikers completed the Overland track between October and May. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403464/original/file-20210530-21-7a6ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5304%2C2982&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two hikers on a grassland trail" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403464/original/file-20210530-21-7a6ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5304%2C2982&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403464/original/file-20210530-21-7a6ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403464/original/file-20210530-21-7a6ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403464/original/file-20210530-21-7a6ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403464/original/file-20210530-21-7a6ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403464/original/file-20210530-21-7a6ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403464/original/file-20210530-21-7a6ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Tassie wilderness provides awe-inspiring but physically demanding hikes for visitors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Noelle Nemeth</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But in winter, Tasmania’s weather conditions can change rapidly, particularly in alpine areas that draw people in with the promise of snow-capped mountains. One hour it can be clear and sunny. The next, bad weather can worsen into a blizzard. </p>
<p>The island’s sometimes severe weather means risks are amplified. These can include getting lost, running out of food or water while sheltering, and having an accident such as falling from steep and slippery terrain. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/photos-from-the-field-capturing-the-grandeur-and-heartbreak-of-tasmanias-giant-trees-144743">Photos from the field: capturing the grandeur and heartbreak of Tasmania's giant trees</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Across Tasmania, bushwalker <a href="https://www.westpacrescuetas.com.au/rescues">rescues</a> fluctuate substantially by year, from lows of six (2018) to highs of 44 (2019). </p>
<p>Of the recent hiker deaths in Tasmania, some have been due to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-19/climber-in-fall-tasmania-cradle-mountain-lake-st-clair/100018118">falls from great heights</a>, while others are attributed to a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-21/tasmania-cradle-mountain-overland-track-death-coronor/11133622">lack of preparation and appropriate gear</a> causing hypothermia. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TTBfRftPTCE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Hypothermia is life threatening. This video explains how you can be prepared in Tasmania’s parks and reserves.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For park management agencies, rescuing injured hikers or recovering the deceased can be dangerous and expensive. Estimated rescue costs range from a few hundred dollars to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/bushwalkers-rescue-likely-to-come-with-10-000-price-tag-20121231-2c2q2.html">tens of thousands of dollars per incident</a>. </p>
<p>At times, bad weather conditions means rescue agencies can’t access sites. They have to make the challenging decision not to respond to rescue calls, to protect the lives of volunteers and <a href="https://www.westpacrescuetas.com.au/visitor-info/rescue-process">rescue staff</a>. </p>
<h2>What is preparedness and why does it matter?</h2>
<p>Preparedness is about providing yourself with the necessary resources to safely tackle unexpected issues that may arise. </p>
<p>How prepared you are can be the difference between severe injury or death, and survival. We define preparedness as the process of:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>packing essential clothing and equipment</p></li>
<li><p>conducting pre-planning and familiarisation with a destination (what are the weather conditions, or trail conditions like?)</p></li>
<li><p>self-assessment of capabilities (what’s your fitness level, and what are your wilderness knowledge and skills like?) </p></li>
<li><p>notifying others about your travel intentions. </p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403504/original/file-20210531-13-56puvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Hiking boots overlooking a lake in Cradle Mountain" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403504/original/file-20210531-13-56puvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403504/original/file-20210531-13-56puvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403504/original/file-20210531-13-56puvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403504/original/file-20210531-13-56puvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403504/original/file-20210531-13-56puvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403504/original/file-20210531-13-56puvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403504/original/file-20210531-13-56puvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wearing the right shoes on your next hike can save your life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Some hikers are better prepared than others</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213078021000244">Our research</a> surveyed overnight hikers in Tasmania. And we found a lack of preparedness is related to people’s backgrounds (such as age and sex) and behavioural traits (such as risk taking). </p>
<p>Young men, for example, appear more likely to take risks, overestimating their skills and experience. Some tourist groups, who are unfamiliar with local weather conditions and landscapes, are also at higher risk. </p>
<p>In many accidents, inadequate clothing or footwear is a culprit, such as lack of woollen base layers, hats and gloves, and waterproof outer layers. This can result in <a href="https://youtu.be/TTBfRftPTCE">hypothermia</a>, frostbite, falls and other major problems. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-accidentally-found-a-whole-new-genus-of-australian-daisies-youve-probably-seen-them-on-your-bushwalks-139754">We accidentally found a whole new genus of Australian daisies. You've probably seen them on your bushwalks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We were surprised by what many hikers didn’t carry, including maps, compasses, whistles, and first aid kits — essential items for all hikers. Some told us they didn’t own that equipment, others thought it was unnecessary. </p>
<p>People in a tour group were less likely to carry food, a first aid kit and safety items, believing their guide would carry it for them. But if group members become separated, the consequences can be fatal.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403505/original/file-20210531-15-106yqp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Hiker beside an orange tent" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403505/original/file-20210531-15-106yqp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403505/original/file-20210531-15-106yqp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403505/original/file-20210531-15-106yqp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403505/original/file-20210531-15-106yqp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403505/original/file-20210531-15-106yqp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403505/original/file-20210531-15-106yqp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403505/original/file-20210531-15-106yqp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maps, compasses, whistles and first aid kits are essential on every hike.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our research also suggests hikers out for day trips or shorter walks, appear to feel there’s less risk and seem less prepared than if they were doing a longer trip. </p>
<p>They’re unlikely to take an emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) or personal locator beacon (PLB), which can send a distress signal and alert rescuers to your location in places with no phone reception. They may also wear sport shoes instead of hiking boots, and some don’t carry essential items for winter walking, such as a waterproof jacket or tent.</p>
<p>Being prepared with the right gear and experience is important regardless of how long you plan on being out. The reality is weather conditions can change suddenly, even if you’re not out for very long.</p>
<h2>So how can you be better prepared?</h2>
<p>In response to past hiker deaths, <a href="https://www.magistratescourt.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/468022/TOLPUTT-Findings-OM.pdf">coronial inquests</a> have identified better education, improved visitor management and safety measures as possible solutions.</p>
<p>But we’ve also identified a simple, but likely effective solution that could supplement a continued lack of appropriate gear: the use of a “gear library”. </p>
<p>A gear library would be set up at visitor centres where you’re usually expected to start hikes and would allow people to hire speciality gear items, such as personal safety devices (EPIRB, PLB). These can usually cost more than $200, but would be substantially cheaper in a gear library, ensuring rescue workers are notified and can find you after an accident. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stick-to-the-path-and-stay-alive-in-national-parks-this-summer-108062">Stick to the path, and stay alive in national parks this summer</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It’s also important to keep a checklist to pack essential items. Some key items include: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>adequate supply of food and water, including contingency items for unexpected additional days hiking because of bad weather</p></li>
<li><p>warm clothes, such as a waterproof jacket with hood and storm front, waterproof over-trousers, sturdy walking boots and warm clothing (a fleece or woollen jumper, thermal base layers, hat and gloves) </p></li>
<li><p>appropriate footwear, such as hiking boots</p></li>
<li><p>a tent for overnight hikes </p></li>
<li><p>a first aid kit </p></li>
<li><p>a torch.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>There are plenty of resources for people seeking information about how best to prepare for their bushwalk, including national park <a href="https://parks.tas.gov.au/explore-our-parks/know-before-you-go/safety-in-parks">visitor centres</a>, <a href="https://www.westpacrescuetas.com.au/services/bushwalker-rescue">Westpac Rescue Tas</a> and the <a href="https://parks.tas.gov.au/?base=403">Parks and Wildlife Tasmania website</a>. These websites provide essential bushwalking guides on what to pack and how to prepare for bushwalking. </p>
<p>Anyone can safely enjoy a good day out in the Tasmanian wilderness — it’s beautiful, but can also be deadly. You can never be too prepared.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/good-signage-in-national-parks-can-save-lives-heres-how-to-do-it-right-93483">Good signage in national parks can save lives. Here's how to do it right</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161509/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason has previously received research funding from the Australian Research Council. He is a member of the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA), and sits on the PIA Tasmanian Divisional Committee</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noelle Nemeth and Vanessa Adams do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In 2019, 44 bushwalkers had to be rescued in Tasmania. New research identified who tends to take the most risks, and how to be better prepared for your next hike.Vanessa Adams, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of Geography and Spatial Sciences, University of TasmaniaJason Byrne, Professor of Human Geography and Planning, University of TasmaniaNoelle Nemeth, Master's Research Student, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1585872021-04-15T13:48:30Z2021-04-15T13:48:30ZJust 3% of Earth’s land ecosystems remain intact – but we can change that<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395248/original/file-20210415-14-160u1nu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1744%2C1148&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cheetahs in the Serengeti in Tanzania.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">A J Plumptre</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15109">Studies</a> 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.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An aerial view of the Amazon forest and river." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395262/original/file-20210415-23-1x8antx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395262/original/file-20210415-23-1x8antx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395262/original/file-20210415-23-1x8antx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395262/original/file-20210415-23-1x8antx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395262/original/file-20210415-23-1x8antx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395262/original/file-20210415-23-1x8antx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395262/original/file-20210415-23-1x8antx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What lies beneath? Fewer animals and fewer interactions between species compared to several centuries ago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/top-view-amazon-rainforest-brazil-558184051">Gustavo Frazao/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2021.626635/full">new study</a>, 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.</p>
<p>We discovered that only 2.8% of the planet’s land surface fits this description. These patches, each 10,000 square kilometres 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.</p>
<h2>The decade of restoration</h2>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394008/original/file-20210408-13-11y0nal.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A world map highlighting areas where" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394008/original/file-20210408-13-11y0nal.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394008/original/file-20210408-13-11y0nal.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394008/original/file-20210408-13-11y0nal.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394008/original/file-20210408-13-11y0nal.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394008/original/file-20210408-13-11y0nal.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394008/original/file-20210408-13-11y0nal.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394008/original/file-20210408-13-11y0nal.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reintroducing between one and five species to many wilderness areas could boost how ecologically intact they are.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">A J Plumptre</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the world considers <a href="https://www.cbd.int/">a new framework</a> for managing biodiversity, the integrity of ecosystems is emerging as an important goal. The UN has also called the 2020s the “decade of restoration”, when national efforts should turn to restoring degraded habitats.</p>
<p>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.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158587/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Plumptre does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One-fifth of Earth’s land could be restored to wilderness by reintroducing animals and improving management.Andrew Plumptre, Key Biodiversity Areas Secretariat, Cambridge Conservation Institute, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1479682021-01-05T13:07:45Z2021-01-05T13:07:45ZIn a time of social and environmental crisis, Aldo Leopold’s call for a ‘land ethic’ is still relevant<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376804/original/file-20201229-15-87q2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C0%2C3609%2C2714&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In 1935 Aldo Leopold bought a depleted Wisconsin farm and restored it to prairie grassland.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/8Uct8x">Bill Hall, AOC Solutions/USFWS/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An ongoing reckoning with race in American history has drawn attention to <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-rise-of-the-american-conservation-movement">racism in the environmental movement</a>. Critiques have focused on themes such as <a href="https://www.uuworld.org/articles/problem-wilderness">forced removal of Indigenous peoples</a> from ancestral lands, early conservationists’ <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/D/bo44309831.html">support for eugenics</a> and the <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-green-groups-became-so-white-and-what-to-do-about-it">chronic lack of diversity</a> in environmental organizations.</p>
<p>They also have scrutinized the racial views of key figures such as <a href="https://www.californiasun.co/stories/john-muir-biographer-he-was-no-white-supremacist/">John Muir</a> and <a href="https://www.history.com/news/teddy-roosevelt-race-imperialism-national-parks">Theodore Roosevelt</a>. Critics argue that these men valued pristine lands but <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/environmentalisms-racist-history">cared little about poor and Indigenous people who occupied them</a>.</p>
<p>Some observers say the same about <a href="https://www.aldoleopold.org/about/aldo-leopold/">Aldo Leopold</a>, born Jan. 11, 1887. Leopold was a prominent conservationist who wore many hats – author, philosopher, forester, naturalist, scientist, ecologist, teacher. Because he was devoted to <a href="https://online.ucpress.edu/phr/article/84/2/195/81132/Pestered-with-Inhabitants-Aldo-Leopold-William">protecting wilderness</a> and also expressed concern about the social and ecological impacts of human population growth, detractors have called him a callous misanthrope at best and <a href="https://theconversation.com/american-environmentalisms-racist-roots-have-shaped-global-thinking-about-conservation-143783">racist at worst</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376799/original/file-20201229-23-rnqw5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Leopold seated on large tree stump with dog" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376799/original/file-20201229-23-rnqw5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376799/original/file-20201229-23-rnqw5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376799/original/file-20201229-23-rnqw5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376799/original/file-20201229-23-rnqw5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376799/original/file-20201229-23-rnqw5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376799/original/file-20201229-23-rnqw5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376799/original/file-20201229-23-rnqw5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forest Assistant Aldo Leopold and dog ‘Flip’ at land cut by trespassers, later set aside as part of the Apache National Forest, Arizona, 1911.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/foresthistory/6678734785/">J.D. Guthrie/Forest History Society/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=BzS9qCsAAAAJ">Leopold biographer</a>, conservationist and historian, I think this argument misses the mark. It’s true that Leopold did not fully acknowledge the historic trauma of Native American dispossession and genocide, or explicitly recognize how the impacts of land exploitation fell disproportionately on the poor and on Black and Indigenous people and people of color. But he came to believe that Western ethical frameworks had to expand to embrace land, as he wrote in his book “<a href="https://www.aldoleopold.org/about/aldo-leopold/sand-county-almanac/">A Sand County Almanac</a>,” as “a community to which we belong.” He called this idea “<a href="https://www.uky.edu/%7Ersand1/china2017/library/Leopold1.pdf">the land ethic</a>.”</p>
<h2>Caring for land and people</h2>
<p>Aldo Leopold was a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-020-00043-6">transformative figure</a> in the evolution of conservation in the U.S. and globally. Trained as a forester, he contributed to the development of fields ranging from soil conservation and wildlife ecology to environmental history and ecological economics. </p>
<p>Early in his career, while working for the U.S. Forest Service in the 1920s, Leopold argued for protecting roadless public wildlands – what would come to be designated as <a href="https://www.justice.gov/enrd/wilderness-act-1964">wilderness four decades later</a> – as a novel form of land use. Automobiles were just entering the landscape, and the federal government had begun funding <a href="https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295982205/driven-wild/">road and highway construction</a> across the country. Leopold pushed to give roadless lands special protection that left them open to hunting, fishing, camping and other uses compatible with their less-developed character.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376800/original/file-20201229-23-omfgcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Wilderness sign in U.S. national forest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376800/original/file-20201229-23-omfgcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376800/original/file-20201229-23-omfgcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376800/original/file-20201229-23-omfgcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376800/original/file-20201229-23-omfgcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376800/original/file-20201229-23-omfgcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376800/original/file-20201229-23-omfgcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376800/original/file-20201229-23-omfgcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">More than 111 million acres on U.S. federal lands are protected as wilderness today – an idea first proposed by Aldo Leopold.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/xz8TZ2">Jason Crotty/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Leopold’s rationale for wildland protection would later evolve to embrace a broader range of cultural, scientific and spiritual values. But he could only dimly foresee how wildlands would come to provide the basis for revitalizing communities and cultural connections, from <a href="https://www.humansandnature.org/healing-sacred-earth">Wisconsin prairies</a> to <a href="https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/the-nature-of-desert-nature">Southwest deserts</a> to <a href="http://www.wild.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Dec09-IJW_Meyer.pdf">German forests</a> and beyond.</p>
<p>But Leopold’s conservation thinking <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/landscape-reform">never focused exclusively on wildlands</a>. He worked to integrate land protection with care for more populated landscapes, from farms, forests and rangelands to whole watersheds and urban neighborhoods. He acted to repair damaged ecosystems and rebuild depleted wildlife populations, providing foundations for such modern fields as <a href="https://doi.org/10.3417/2016037">ecological restoration</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/B:LAND.0000004458.18101.4d">landscape ecology</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13526">conservation biology</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376796/original/file-20201229-49513-te6ocx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Aldo Leopold seated outdoors" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376796/original/file-20201229-49513-te6ocx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376796/original/file-20201229-49513-te6ocx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376796/original/file-20201229-49513-te6ocx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376796/original/file-20201229-49513-te6ocx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376796/original/file-20201229-49513-te6ocx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376796/original/file-20201229-49513-te6ocx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376796/original/file-20201229-49513-te6ocx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aldo Leopold at his shack on the Wisconsin River near Baraboo, Wisconsin, circa 1940.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://news.wisc.edu/uw-madison-offers-free-leopolds-land-ethic-online-course-and-february-event/">UW Digital Archives</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“A Sand County Almanac” was published in 1949, a year after Leopold’s death. It is required reading in many courses on U.S. environmental thinking. I believe this is because of its lyrical prose but also because it connects the older conservation movement and contemporary environmentalism.</p>
<p>In the broad arc of Western conservation history, the land ethic represented a move away from viewing land as a commodity to be exploited and toward something more aligned with Indigenous views on intergenerational obligations and human kinship with other species. I believe it may contribute to further progress in realizing an ethic of <a href="https://www.humansandnature.org/earth-ethic-robin-kimmerer">responsibility and reciprocity</a> among people, and between people and land.</p>
<h2>Leopold, race and conservation</h2>
<p>Several recent <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/889qxx/its-time-for-environmental-studies-to-own-up-to-erasing-black-people">articles</a> and <a href="https://grist.org/article/why-does-environmentalism-have-a-dark-side/">commentaries</a> have characterized Leopold as a racist or white supremacist. This view reflects particular claims that pertain not only to Leopold as an individual but to the conservation movement generally. </p>
<p>As I see it, labeling Leopold racist oversimplifies his wilderness advocacy and his effort to understand human population pressure as a factor in environmental change. It also fails to appreciate <a href="https://islandpress.org/books/aldo-leopolds-odyssey-tenth-anniversary-edition">critical shifts</a> in Leopold’s ethical outlook in the final years of his life. In his draft foreword to “A Sand County Almanac” he wrote: “I do not imply that this philosophy of land was always clear to me. It is rather the end-result of a life-journey….”</p>
<p>As Leopold was an early leader in the development of population ecology and wildlife management, it’s not surprising that he considered whether these fields could offer perspective on <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-malthusian-moment/9780813552712">human population growth</a>. He knew this was sensitive territory, and explored such notions cautiously, looking at population and how it interacted with affluence, consumption, education and technological change. </p>
<p>In encouraging citizens to be more mindful about their consumer choices, he redefined conservation as “<a href="https://loa.org/books/380-a-sand-county-almanac-other-writings-on-ecology-and-conservation">our attempt to put human ecology on a permanent footing</a>.”</p>
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<h2>The land ethic and social evolution</h2>
<p>Although Leopold never advocated harsh or coercive population control measures or steps that could be viewed as racially motivated, he was not as visionary on social justice matters as he was on conservation issues. In his extensive writings you can find occasional statements and phrasings that now read as awkward, inept and naive. In an essay on pine trees, for example, he employed an archaic stock phrase, flippantly remarking that white pines “adhere closely to the Anglo-Saxon doctrine of free, white, and twenty-one.”</p>
<p>However, Leopold was also a lifelong reformer who understood the fundamental connections between social and ecological well-being. Based on that understanding, he worked to advance an ethic of care that united humans’ need for justice and compassion toward one another and toward the living land. </p>
<p>The land ethic as Leopold framed it was not elitist or exclusionary. It <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-020-00044-5">explicitly embraced people</a> as members of the “land community,” without placing conditions on that membership. Its tenets inherently subvert racist and white supremacist attitudes.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Leopold composed “The Land Ethic” in the summer of 1947 as the clouds of World War II were still dissipating. Global conflagration and the deployment of destructive new technologies tempered his characteristic progressive outlook. He wrote – albeit in the gendered language of the time – that “It has required nineteen centuries to define decent man-to-man conduct and the process is only half done; it may take as long to evolve a code of decency for man-to-land conduct.” </p>
<p>Leopold saw that an ethic had to be a collective cultural effort, ever emerging “in the minds of a thinking community.” Today, as people around the world struggle to address complex and interconnected social and environmental crises, our shared future depends on forging an ethic that integrates diverse voices, belief systems and ways of knowing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147968/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Curt D. Meine is a Senior Fellow with the Aldo Leopold Foundation and the Center for Humans and Nature.</span></em></p>Jan. 11 marks the birthday of conservationist Aldo Leopold (1887-1948), who called for thinking about land as a living community to protect, not a resource to exploit.Curt D. Meine, Adjunct Associate Professor of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1469572020-10-05T12:10:36Z2020-10-05T12:10:36ZA proposed mine threatens Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, the most popular wilderness in the US<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361429/original/file-20201002-24-1qfz2fx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4096%2C2683&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness draws thousands of visitors yearly.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/2jodLTk">Andy Witchger/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Trump has worked aggressively to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html">dismantle the environmental legacy</a> of his predecessor Barack Obama since taking office in 2017. The latest example is a mining project that could affect the most heavily visited wilderness area in the United States: the <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/superior/specialplaces/?cid=fseprd555184">Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness</a>, which stretches over a million acres in the <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/main/superior/home">Superior National Forest</a> in remote northern Minnesota. </p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.fieldandstream.com/place-to-escape-boundary-waters-canoe-area-wilderness/">bucket-list destination for paddling, fishing and camping</a> contains more than 1,200 miles of canoe routes among thousands of lakes and streams, drawing some 250,000 visitors yearly. Just to its southwest are large metal deposits – part of Minnesota’s Iron Ranges, which have been a major mining region <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2020/05/a-brief-history-of-minnesotas-mesabi-iron-range/">since the mid-1800s</a>. </p>
<p>For <a href="https://www.twin-metals.com/meet-twin-metals/about-the-project/">over a decade</a> a company called <a href="https://www.twin-metals.com/meet-twin-metals/">Twin Metals</a> has been seeking permission to build and run an underground copper, nickel, cobalt and platinum mine there. Opponents, including local residents, conservation groups and outdoor businesses, argue that this operation could <a href="https://www.savetheboundarywaters.org/the-threat">release toxic contaminants</a> that would wash into the Boundary Waters and adjoining parks, poisoning wildlife and contaminating soils.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361432/original/file-20201002-23-1awhgdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of parks near proposed mine site" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361432/original/file-20201002-23-1awhgdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361432/original/file-20201002-23-1awhgdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361432/original/file-20201002-23-1awhgdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361432/original/file-20201002-23-1awhgdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361432/original/file-20201002-23-1awhgdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361432/original/file-20201002-23-1awhgdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361432/original/file-20201002-23-1awhgdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Critics of the Twin Metals mine proposal argue that pollution from sulfide-ore copper mining could flow into the Boundary Waters, and from there into Voyageurs National Park and Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.voyageurs.org/advocacy/sulfide-mining">Voyageurs National Park Association</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>The Obama administration opposed the project and declined to renew expiring leases for Twin Metals in 2016. But the Trump administration <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/environment/2019/05/feds-renew-twin-metals-mineral-leases-what-it-means-for-the-companys-proposed-copper-nickel-mine-near-the-bwca/">granted new leases</a> in May 2019. As a scholar who <a href="https://www.rizzoliusa.com/book/9780847849154/">studies public land management</a>, I see this controversy as a classic debate over environmental protection versus job creation, with a twist: There’s a compelling economic argument for conservation. </p>
<h2>Short- and long-term benefits</h2>
<p>U.S. national forests are managed with multiple uses in mind, including logging, livestock grazing, biodiversity, air and water quality and recreation. Designating part of a national forest as wilderness is a big step that prohibits some of those uses. It means, in the language of the 1964 <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5313909.pdf">Wilderness Act</a>, that “there shall be no commercial enterprise and no permanent road within any wilderness area,” nor any motorized vehicles that would mar the land’s “primeval character,” its “outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation.”</p>
<p>The Boundary Waters first received protection as a roadless wilderness area in <a href="https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/pubs/bwcawild.pdf">1926</a> at the recommendation of the Forest Service’s first landscape architect, Arthur Carhart. “There is one outstanding feature found in the Superior National Forest which is not present in any other nationally owned property,” Carhart asserted. “This is a lake type of recreation. The Superior is unquestionably <a href="https://apnews.com/c8df154479754f77b4dfe31edeb19bd8/can-nature-advocates-save-threatened-boundary-waters">one of the few great canoe countries of the world</a>.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361410/original/file-20201002-22-ulk39r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Lynda Bird Johnson portaging a canoe" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361410/original/file-20201002-22-ulk39r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361410/original/file-20201002-22-ulk39r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361410/original/file-20201002-22-ulk39r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361410/original/file-20201002-22-ulk39r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361410/original/file-20201002-22-ulk39r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361410/original/file-20201002-22-ulk39r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361410/original/file-20201002-22-ulk39r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Lynda Bird Johnson, daughter of president Lyndon Johnson, on a visit to the Boundary Waters in 1965.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/8UpFwX">USFS/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>This was just the <a href="http://bwca.cc/historical/history.htm">second officially protected U.S. wilderness area</a> at the time. Today Northeast Minnesota’s outdoor recreation economy generates more than <a href="https://mn.gov/tourism-industry/assets/01222019-rsc-nll-tourism-and-the-economy-fact-sheet-2019_tcm1135-370472.pdf">US$900 million in annual revenues and sustains over 17,000 jobs</a>. </p>
<p>A 2016 study estimated that the Boundary Waters alone accounts for <a href="https://recpro.memberclicks.net/assets/Library/Economic_Impact/Boundary_Waters_Economics_Report-2016.pdf">1,000 jobs and $77 million in annual economic output</a>. “Outdoor recreation is an export industry for northeastern Minnesota, providing for stable employment and sustainable jobs year after year,” the report observed. </p>
<p>For comparison, Twin Metals projects that its mine would <a href="https://www.twin-metals.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TMM-Mine-Plan-of-Operations_2019-1218-R.pdf">operate for 25 years</a> and <a href="https://www.twin-metals.com/meet-twin-metals/about-the-project/">generate more than 2,250 jobs</a>. A Harvard economist who assessed these two options in 2018 concluded that over 20 years, protecting the Boundary Waters would provide <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/stock/files/snf_withdrawal_ea_stock_and_bradt_aug6_2018.pdf">greater economic benefits than approving the mine</a>.</p>
<p>Critics of the proposed mine are worried because mining generates large quantities of waste rock. Metals in these rocks can produce highly acidic runoff that <a href="https://theconversation.com/mining-powers-modern-life-but-can-leave-scarred-lands-and-polluted-waters-behind-119453">pollutes rivers, streams and groundwater</a>. </p>
<p>A 2012 study of 15 U.S. sulfide-ore copper mines, published by the environmental advocacy organization Earthworks, found that 14 of the projects experienced accidental releases that resulted in <a href="https://www.earthworks.org/publications/u-s-operating-copper-mines-failure-to-capture-treat-wastewater/">significant water contamination</a>. Since the Boundary Waters exists within a vast network of interconnected lakes and streams, toxic mining pollution upstream could be disastrous for fish, wildlife and wilderness values. </p>
<p>Polls show that an overwhelming majority of Minnesotans, including residents of the northern counties, want to <a href="https://www.startribune.com/minnesotans-opposed-to-new-mining-near-boundary-waters-poll-shows/568158962/?refresh=true">protect the Boundary Waters</a> and the jobs and revenues that the wilderness generates. On the other side, unions, business organizations and <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/02/13/in-northern-minn-neighbors-navigate-the-bitter-fight-over-coppernickel-mining">local elected officials</a> argue that the mine will <a href="http://jobsforminnesotans.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Twin-Metals-Support-Letter.pdf">boost the regional economy</a> while producing “strategic minerals critical to the transition to a green economy and our national security.” </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Follow a family paddling, camping and fishing in the Boundary Waters.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Fast-tracking development</h2>
<p>As often is true of mining proposals, several agencies are involved. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management controls all minerals on U.S. public lands. Because 400 acres of the proposed mine’s 1,156-acre footprint is <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/06/30/2020-14051/notice-of-intent-to-prepare-an-environmental-impact-statement-for-the-twin-metals-project-in-the">within the Superior National Forest</a>, the bureau <a href="https://apnews.com/c8df154479754f77b4dfe31edeb19bd8/can-nature-advocates-save-threatened-boundary-waters">needs the Forest Service’s consent</a> to approve the project.</p>
<p>In 2016, after analyzing the mine’s potential impacts, the Forest Service refused to consent to the lease, and the Obama administration imposed a 20-year moratorium on mining near the Boundary Waters. But things changed a year later, shortly after President Trump’s inauguration, when his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner rented a District of Columbia mansion from a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2017/03/08/report-ivanka-and-jared-kushners-mysterious-landlord-is-a-chilean-billionaire/">Chilean businessman named Andrónico Luksic</a>. </p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=experts">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get expert takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em>]</p>
<p>Luksic was the chief executive officer of Antofagasta, a Chilean conglomerate that owned Twin Metals. Within weeks, senior U.S. officials were meeting with Antofagasta leaders and reexamining the leases. Company representatives and a spokesperson for the Kushners said there was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/climate/trump-minnesota-mine.html">no link between the rental and action on the mine</a>, but ethics experts said even the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ivanka-trumps-landlord-is-a-chilean-billionaire-suing-the-u-s-government-1489000307">appearance of a conflict</a> was troubling.</p>
<p>Administration officials have sought to weaken the Forest Service’s <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/04/01/2020-06791/locatable-minerals">authority over mineral leases</a> across its 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands. On June 12, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, whose agency includes the Forest Service, issued a memo that directed the Forest Service to “streamline processes and identify new opportunities to increase America’s energy dominance and <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/oil-logging-mining-ordered-as-new-focus-for-forest-service">reduce reliance on foreign countries for critical minerals</a>.” And the agency has signaled its willingness to do so. </p>
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<h2>Ecological value</h2>
<p>Trump has claimed credit on the campaign trail for saving Minnesota’s mining economy from stifling environmental regulation. “Our miners are back on the job and wages have increased by as much as 50%…. But if Biden wins the Iron Range we’ll be shut down forever, you know that,” he told an <a href="https://www.fox21online.com/2020/08/17/president-trump-focuses-on-farming-iron-range-mining-during-minnesota-campaign-stop/">audience in Mankato, Minnesota</a>, on Aug. 17.</p>
<p>Ironically, just a few days later the Trump administration <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/08/22/trump-administration-pause-permit-alaskas-pebble-mine-monday/">hit the pause button</a> on another large mining project: the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska, which critics assert would <a href="http://www.savebristolbay.org/">pollute Bristol Bay</a>, the site of several lucrative wild salmon fisheries. The administration reportedly reversed course after Donald Trump Jr. and other prominent conservatives who are <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/08/reversal-trump-kills-huge-alaskan-gold-mine-here-s-why">avid hunters and anglers</a> objected to it. </p>
<p>While jobs and economic impacts loom large in this debate, they aren’t the only issues at stake. At an <a href="https://www.un.org/pga/75/united-nations-summit-on-biodiversity/">international biodiversity summit</a> on Sept. 30, United Nations officials issued a call to action to protect nature from degradation. With biodiversity declining “at rates unprecedented in human history, with growing impacts on people and our planet,” they specifically pointed out that some 85% of global wetlands have been lost to development, with <a href="https://www.unwater.org/the-global-wetland-outlook/">35% of that total</a> disappearing between 1970 and 2015. </p>
<p>That makes the Boundary Waters, with its 1,000 glacier-gouged lakes, both a relic and an opportunity for Minnesotans, Americans and the planet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146957/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Char Miller is a board member at the National Museum of Forest Service History and a senior fellow at the Pinchot Institute for Conservation.
</span></em></p>Conservation or copper? A proposed mine in northern Minnesota pits industrial jobs against a thriving outdoor economy.Char Miller, W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History, Pomona CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1437832020-09-02T19:22:31Z2020-09-02T19:22:31ZAmerican environmentalism’s racist roots have shaped global thinking about conservation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355670/original/file-20200901-20-vat1xr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1503%2C475%2C7163%2C5108&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">John James Audubon relied on African Americans and Native Americans to collect some specimens for his 'Birds of America' prints (shown: Florida cormorant), but never credited them. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://df0bd6h5ujoev.cloudfront.net/plate-252-florida-cormorant-final.jpg">National Audubon Society</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United States is having a long-overdue national reckoning with racism. From <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-racist-roots-of-american-policing-from-slave-patrols-to-traffic-stops-112816">criminal justice</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-oppressive-seeds-of-the-colin-kaepernick-backlash-66358">pro sports</a> to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/25/entertainment/pop-culture-reckoning-race-trnd/index.html">pop culture</a>, Americans increasingly are recognizing how racist ideas have influenced virtually every sphere of life in this country.</p>
<p>This includes the environmental movement. Recently the Sierra Club – one of the oldest and largest U.S. conservation organizations – acknowledged racist views held by its founder, author and conservationist <a href="https://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/life/muir_biography.aspx">John Muir</a>. In some of his writing, Muir described Native Americans and Black people as <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-miseducation-of-john-muir">dirty, lazy and uncivilized</a>. In an essay collection published in 1901 to promote national parks, he assured prospective tourists that “As to Indians, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/environmentalisms-racist-history">most of them are dead or civilized into useless innocence</a>.” </p>
<p>Acknowledging this record, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/michael-brune/2020/07/john-muir-early-history-sierra-club">wrote in July 2020</a>: “As defenders of Black life pull down Confederate monuments across the country, we must…reexamine our past and our substantial role in perpetuating white supremacy.” </p>
<p>This is a salutary gesture. However, I know from my <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SRC3hyMAAAAJ&hl=en">research on conservation policy</a> in places like India, Tanzania and Mexico that the problem isn’t just the Sierra Club. </p>
<p>American environmentalism’s racist roots have influenced global conservation practices. Most notably, they are embedded in longstanding prejudices against local communities and a focus on protecting pristine wildernesses. This dominant narrative pays little thought to indigenous and other poor people who rely on these lands – even when they are its most effective stewards.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355634/original/file-20200831-15-1eu6l1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C2006%2C1502&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355634/original/file-20200831-15-1eu6l1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C2006%2C1502&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355634/original/file-20200831-15-1eu6l1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355634/original/file-20200831-15-1eu6l1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355634/original/file-20200831-15-1eu6l1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355634/original/file-20200831-15-1eu6l1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355634/original/file-20200831-15-1eu6l1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355634/original/file-20200831-15-1eu6l1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Native Americans protest President Donald Trump’s visit to Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, July 3, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/native-american-protesters-and-supporters-gather-at-the-news-photo/1224709994?adppopup=true">Micah Garen/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Racist legacies of nature conservation</h2>
<p>Muir was not the first or last American conservationist to hold racist views. Decades before Muir set foot in California’s Sierra Nevada. John James Audubon published his “<a href="https://www.audubon.org/birds-of-america">Birds of America</a>” engravings between 1827 and 1838. Audubon was a skilled naturalist and illustrator – and a slaveholder.</p>
<p>Audubon’s research benefited from information and specimens collected by enslaved Black men and Indigenous people. Instead of recognizing their contributions, Audubon referred to them as “<a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/the-myth-john-james-audubon">hands” traveling along with white men</a>. The National Audubon Society has removed Audubon’s biography from its site, <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/revealing-past-create-future">referring</a> to Audubon’s involvement in the slave trade as “the challenging parts of his identity and actions.” The group also condemned “the role John James Audubon played in enslaving Black people and perpetuating white supremacist culture.”</p>
<p>Theodore Roosevelt, who is widely revered as the <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-wilderness-warrior-douglas-brinkley?variant=32122628046882">first environmental president</a>, was an enthusiastic hunter who led <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithsonian%E2%80%93Roosevelt_African_Expedition">the Smithsonian–Roosevelt African Expedition</a> to Kenya in 1909-1910. During this “<a href="https://www.theawl.com/2016/03/there-must-be-something-to-shoot/">shooting trip</a>,” Roosevelt and his party killed more than 11,000 animals, including <a href="https://hollis.harvard.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=HVD_VIAolvgroup12517&context=L&vid=HVD2&search_scope=everything&tab=everything&lang=en_US">elephants, hippopotamuses and white rhinos</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355630/original/file-20200831-19-1q6tmtm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355630/original/file-20200831-19-1q6tmtm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355630/original/file-20200831-19-1q6tmtm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355630/original/file-20200831-19-1q6tmtm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355630/original/file-20200831-19-1q6tmtm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355630/original/file-20200831-19-1q6tmtm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355630/original/file-20200831-19-1q6tmtm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355630/original/file-20200831-19-1q6tmtm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir at Yosemite National Park, California, 1903.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3a11256/">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The predominant view is that Roosevelt’s love of hunting was good for nature because it <a href="https://time.com/5259995/theodore-roosevelt-portrait-conservation-hunting/">fueled his passion for conservation</a>. But this paradigm underpins what I see as a modern racist myth: the view that <a href="https://theconversation.com/counting-the-contribution-of-hunting-to-south-africas-economy-106715">trophy hunting</a> – wealthy hunters buying government licenses to shoot big game and keep whatever animal parts they choose – <a href="https://theconversation.com/trophy-hunting-can-it-really-be-justified-by-conservation-benefits-121921">pays for wildlife conservation in Africa</a>. In my assessment, there is <a href="https://africasacountry.com/2019/09/the-white-hunter">little evidence to support such claims</a> about trophy hunting, which reinforce exploitative models of conservation by removing local communities from lands set aside as hunting reserves. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.leopold.iastate.edu/files/page/files/AldoLeopold.pdf">Ecologist Aldo Leopold</a>, who is viewed as the father of wildlife management and the U.S. wilderness system, was an early proponent of the argument that <a href="https://psmag.com/news/when-wilderness-was-strictly-whites-only">overpopulation is the root cause of environmental problems</a>. This view implies that economically less-developed nations with large populations are the biggest threats to conservation. </p>
<p>Contemporary advocates of wildlife conservation, such as Britain’s Prince William, continue to <a href="https://www.royal.uk/duke-cambridge-gives-speech-tusk-trust-ball">rely on the trope</a> that “Africa’s rapidly growing human population” threatens the continent’s wildlife. Famed primatologist Jane Goodall also blamed our current environmental challenges in part on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t8DLzLqj5Q0">overpopulation</a>. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/26/16356524/the-population-question">the argument that population growth alone is responsible for environmental damage is problematic</a>. Many studies have concluded that conspicuous consumption and the energy-intensive lifestyles of wealthy people in advanced economies have a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16941-y">much larger impact on the environment</a> than actions by poor people. For example, the richest 10% of the world’s population produces <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nww081">almost as much greenhouse gas emissions as the bottom 90% combined</a>. </p>
<p>Local communities are often written out of popular narratives on nature conservation. Many documentaries, such as the 2020 film “<a href="http://www.wildkarnataka.com/">Wild Karnataka</a>,” narrated by David Attenborough, <a href="https://thewire.in/environment/wild-karnataka-david-attenborough-karnataka-forest-department-native-people">entirely ignore local Indigenous people</a>, who have nurtured the natural heritages of the places where they live. Some of the most celebrated footage in wildlife documentaries made by filmmakers like Attenborough <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/bbc-david-attenborough-nature-documentaries-fake-a8291961.html">is not even shot in the wild</a>. By relying on fictional visuals, they reproduce racialized structures that render local people invisible. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DXz96CvgEy4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Worldwide, some 370 million Indigenous people are at risk of being removed from their ancestral lands.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fortress conservation</h2>
<p>The wilderness movement founded by Anglo-American conservationists is institutionalized in the form of national parks. Writer and historian Wallace Stegner famously <a href="https://www.nps.gov/americasbestidea/#:%7E:text=Writer%20and%20historian%20Wallace%20Stegner,best%20rather%20than%20our%20worst.%22">called national parks</a> “the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.”</p>
<p>But many national parks and other lands set aside for wilderness conservation are also <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/michael-brune/2020/07/john-muir-early-history-sierra-club">the ancestral homelands of Native peoples</a>. These communities were <a href="https://smea.uw.edu/currents/fortress-conservation-the-makings-of-yosemite-national-park/">forced off their lands</a> during European colonization of North America. </p>
<p>Similar injustices continued to unfold even after independence in other parts of the world. When I analyzed a data set of 137 countries, I found that the largest areas of national parks were set aside in countries with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.08.018">high levels of economic inequality and poor or nonexistent democratic institutions</a>. The poorest countries – including the Republic of the Congo, Namibia, Tanzania and Zambia – had each set aside more than 30% of national territories exclusively for wildlife and biodiversity conservation. </p>
<p>This happens because <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/09/28/763994654/why-botswana-is-lifting-its-ban-on-elephant-trophy-hunting">corrupt government officials and commercial tourism and safari operators</a> can benefit from it. So do hunters, researchers and documentary filmmakers from the Global North, even as local communities are forbidden from hunting bush meat for family consumption. </p>
<p>Critics call this strategy “<a href="https://www.corneredbypas.com/">fortress conservation</a>.” According to some estimates, Indigenous and rural communities <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/11/can-indigenous-land-stewardship-protect-biodiversity-/">protect up to 80% of global biodiversity</a>, but receive little benefit in return. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1186217845023264768"}"></div></p>
<h2>Better models</h2>
<p>Correcting this legacy can happen only by radically transforming its exclusionary approach. Better and scientifically robust strategies recognize that low-intensity human interventions in nature practiced by Indigenous peoples can conserve landscapes more effectively than walling them off from use.</p>
<p>For example, I have studied <a href="https://thewire.in/environment/forest-agencies-conservation-fra">forested regions of central India</a> that are home to Indigenous Baiga communities. Baigas practice subsistence farming that involves few or no chemical fertilizers and controlled use of fire. This form of agriculture <a href="http://www.conservationandsociety.org/text.asp?2006/4/3/359/49270">creates open grasslands that support endangered native herbivores</a> like deer and antelopes. These grasslands are the main habitat for India’s world-renowned <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/newswire/story/tribals-join-in-tiger-conservation-in-kanha-national-park/943927">Kanha National Park and Tiger Reserve</a>.</p>
<p>Ecologists have shown that natural landscapes interspersed with low-intensity subsistence agriculture can be <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429028557">most effective for biodiversity conservation</a>. These multiple-use landscapes provide social, economic and cultural support for Indigenous and rural communities. </p>
<p>My research shows that when governments enact socially just nature conservation policies, such as <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/guardians-of-mexicos-community-forests-confront-climate-change/">community forestry in Mexico</a>, they are <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/democracy-in-the-woods-9780190637385?cc=us&lang=en&">better able to handle conflicts over use of these resources</a>. Socially just nature conservation is possible under two main conditions: Indigenous and rural communities have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/world/americas/23mexico.html">concrete stakes in protecting those resources</a> and can <a href="https://merionwest.com/2018/01/09/public-policy-expert-political-engagement-is-key-to-social-justice/">participate in policy decisions</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Nonetheless, conservation institutions and policies continue to exclude and discriminate against <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/11/can-indigenous-land-stewardship-protect-biodiversity-/">Indigenous</a> and <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/un-passes-first-ever-declaration-for-peasant-rights/">rural communities</a>. In the long run, it is clear to me that conservation will succeed only if it can support the goal of a dignified life for all humans and nonhuman species.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143783/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Prakash Kashwan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>US ideas about conservation center on walling off land from use. That approach often means expelling Indigenous and other poor people who may be its most effective caretakers.Prakash Kashwan, Co-Director, Research Program on Economic and Social Rights, Human Rights Institute, and Associate Professor, Department of Political Science., University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1426482020-07-15T20:00:11Z2020-07-15T20:00:11ZHumans are encroaching on Antarctica’s last wild places, threatening its fragile biodiversity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347477/original/file-20200714-139992-14vm71s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C5018%2C3252&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">SL Chown</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since Western explorers discovered Antarctica 200 years ago, human activity has been increasing. Now, more than <a href="https://www.comnap.aq/">30 countries</a> operate scientific stations in Antarctica, more than <a href="https://iaato.org/information-resources/data-statistics/">50,000 tourists</a> visit each year, and new infrastructure continues to be developed to meet this rising demand. </p>
<p>Determining if our activities have compromised Antarctica’s wilderness has, however, remained difficult.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2506-3">Our study</a>, published today in Nature, seeks to change that. Using a new “ecological informatics” approach, we’ve drawn together every available recorded visit by humans to the continent, over its 200 year history.</p>
<p>We found human activity across Antarctica has been extensive, especially in the ice-free and coastal areas, but that’s where most biodiversity is found. This means wilderness areas – parts of the continent largely untouched by human activity – do not capture many of the continent’s important biodiversity sites.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347480/original/file-20200714-37-1lzoq01.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347480/original/file-20200714-37-1lzoq01.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347480/original/file-20200714-37-1lzoq01.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347480/original/file-20200714-37-1lzoq01.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347480/original/file-20200714-37-1lzoq01.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347480/original/file-20200714-37-1lzoq01.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347480/original/file-20200714-37-1lzoq01.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Historical and contemporary human activity on Deception Island.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SL Chown</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>One of the world’s largest intact wildernesses</h2>
<p>So just how large is the Antarctic wilderness? For the first time, our study calculated this area and how much biodiversity it captures. And, like all good questions, the answer is “that depends”. </p>
<p>If we think of Antarctica in the same way as every other continent, then the whole of Antarctica is a wilderness. It has no farms, no cities, no suburbs, no malls, no factories. And for a continent so large, it has very few people.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347536/original/file-20200715-33-60i8q.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347536/original/file-20200715-33-60i8q.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347536/original/file-20200715-33-60i8q.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347536/original/file-20200715-33-60i8q.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347536/original/file-20200715-33-60i8q.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347536/original/file-20200715-33-60i8q.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347536/original/file-20200715-33-60i8q.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Antarctica’s wilderness should be held to a higher standard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SL Chown</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But Antarctica is too different to compare to other continents – it should be held to a higher standard. And so we define “wilderness” as the areas that aren’t highly impacted by people. This would exclude, for example, tourist areas and scientific stations. And under this definition, the wilderness area is still large. </p>
<p>It’s about 13,598,148 square kilometres, or more than 99% of the continent. Only the wilderness in the vast forested areas of the far Northern Hemisphere is larger. Roughly, this area is nearly twice the size of Australia. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/marine-life-found-in-ancient-antarctica-ice-helps-solve-a-carbon-dioxide-puzzle-from-the-ice-age-141973">Marine life found in ancient Antarctica ice helps solve a carbon dioxide puzzle from the ice age</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>On the other hand, the inviolate areas (places free from human interference) that the Antarctic Treaty Parties are <a href="https://www.ats.aq/e/protocol.html">obliged to identify and protect</a> are dwindling rapidly.</p>
<p>Our analyses suggest less than 32% of the continent includes large, unvisited areas. And even that’s an overestimate. Not all visits have been recorded, and several new traverses – crossing large tracts of unvisited areas – are being planned.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347475/original/file-20200714-139969-x1tfuj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347475/original/file-20200714-139969-x1tfuj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347475/original/file-20200714-139969-x1tfuj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347475/original/file-20200714-139969-x1tfuj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347475/original/file-20200714-139969-x1tfuj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347475/original/file-20200714-139969-x1tfuj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347475/original/file-20200714-139969-x1tfuj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Human activity has been extensive across Antarctica, but large areas with no visitation record might still exist across central parts of the continent.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Leihy et al. 2020 Nature</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Wilderness areas have poor biodiversity value</h2>
<p>If so much of the continent remains “wild”, how much of Antarctica’s biodiversity lives within these areas?</p>
<p>Surprisingly few sites considered really important for Antarctic biodiversity are represented in the “un-impacted” wilderness area. </p>
<p>For example, only 16% of the continent’s <a href="https://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/programme-additional-info/important-bird-and-biodiversity-areas-ibas">Important Bird Areas</a> (areas identified internationally as critical for bird conservation) are located in wilderness areas. And only 25% of protected areas established for their species or ecosystem value, and less than 7% of sites with recorded species, are in wilderness areas.</p>
<p>This outcome is surprising because wilderness areas elsewhere, like the Amazon rainforest, are typically valued as crucial habitat for biodiversity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347537/original/file-20200715-33-kddy9s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347537/original/file-20200715-33-kddy9s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347537/original/file-20200715-33-kddy9s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347537/original/file-20200715-33-kddy9s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347537/original/file-20200715-33-kddy9s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347537/original/file-20200715-33-kddy9s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347537/original/file-20200715-33-kddy9s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ice-free areas are critical habitat for Antarctic biodiversity, like Adélie penguins, and frequently visited by people as well.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SL Chown</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Inviolate areas have seemingly even less biodiversity value. This is because people have mostly had to visit Antarctic sites to collect species data. </p>
<p>In the future, remote sensing technologies might allow us to investigate and monitor pristine areas without setting foot in them. But for now, most of our knowledge of Antarctic species comes from places that have been impacted to some extent by people.</p>
<h2>How does human activity threaten Antarctic biodiversity?</h2>
<p>Antarctica’s remaining wilderness areas need urgent protection from increasing human activity. </p>
<p>Even passing human disturbance can impact the biodiversity and wilderness value of sites. For example, sensitive vegetation and soil communities can take years to recover from trampling.</p>
<p>Increasing movement around the continent also increases the risk people will transfer species between isolated regions, or introduce new alien species to Antarctica.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347481/original/file-20200714-17-jtasar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347481/original/file-20200714-17-jtasar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347481/original/file-20200714-17-jtasar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347481/original/file-20200714-17-jtasar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347481/original/file-20200714-17-jtasar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347481/original/file-20200714-17-jtasar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347481/original/file-20200714-17-jtasar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Expanding the existing network of Antarctic protected areas can secure remaining wilderness areas into the future.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SL Chown</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>So how can we protect it?</h2>
<p>Protecting the Antarctic wilderness could be achieved by expanding the existing <a href="https://www.ats.aq/e/protected.html">Antarctic Specially Protected Areas</a> network to include more wilderness and inviolate areas where policymakers would limit human activity.</p>
<p>When planning how we’ll use Antarctica in the future, we could also consider the trade off between the benefits of science and tourism activities, and the value of retaining pristine wilderness and inviolate areas. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/microscopic-animals-are-busy-distributing-microplastics-throughout-the-worlds-soil-141353">Microscopic animals are busy distributing microplastics throughout the world's soil</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>This could be done explicitly through the environmental impact assessments required for activities in the region. Currently, impacts on the wilderness value of sites are rarely considered.</p>
<p>We have an opportunity in Antarctica to protect some of the world’s most intact and undisturbed environments, and prevent further erosion of Antarctica’s remarkable wilderness value.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347539/original/file-20200715-33-1dyr13v.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347539/original/file-20200715-33-1dyr13v.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347539/original/file-20200715-33-1dyr13v.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347539/original/file-20200715-33-1dyr13v.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347539/original/file-20200715-33-1dyr13v.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347539/original/file-20200715-33-1dyr13v.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347539/original/file-20200715-33-1dyr13v.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ross Sea Region, Antarctica. Few sites considered really important for Antarctic biodiversity are represented in the wilderness area.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SL Chown</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142648/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Leihy receives funding from the Sir James McNeill Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Chown is President of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). He receives funding and/or has received funding from the Australian Antarctic Science Program, the Australian Research Council and SCAR.</span></em></p>Protecting the continent’s remaining pristine wilderness areas is urgent, but achievable.Rachel Leihy, PhD candidate, Monash UniversitySteven Chown, Professor of Biological Sciences, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1100612019-01-29T16:00:01Z2019-01-29T16:00:01ZFive maps that reveal the world’s remaining wilderness<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256144/original/file-20190129-39344-xlctan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The world's remaining wilderness. Dark blue = terrestrial. Light blue = marine. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Modified with permission from Protect the last of the wild, Watson et al, Nature (2018)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There aren’t many corners of the world left untouched by humanity. Recent research has highlighted that just 23% of the planet’s <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata2017187">land surface</a> (excluding Antarctica) and 13% of <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30772-3?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982218307723%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">the ocean</a> can now be classified as wilderness, representing nearly a <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)30993-9?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982216309939%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">10% decline</a> over the last 20 years. And more than 70% of what wilderness remains is contained within just <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07183-6">five countries</a>. </p>
<p>Researchers from the US and Australia recently produced <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07183-6">a global map</a> to illustrate this decline, made by combining data on things such as population density, night-time lights and types of vegetation. The problem with such an approach is that the question of where wilderness begins and ends is not as simple as it may first seem.</p>
<p>The data used to map wilderness is often collected in different ways for different parts of the world. For example, some datasets map roads all the way down to farm and forest tracks, while others may only record primary road networks. The definition of how far land has to be from these roads to be classified as wilderness can also vary. Meanwhile, knitting all this data into a single map often leads to compromises that reduce its usefulness, such as not including any blocks of wilderness below a certain size.</p>
<p>So while global maps are useful for drawing attention to the attrition of wilderness areas, only the greater detail of national and local maps can really help us understand and respond to the threats that face our remaining wild areas.</p>
<h2>Scotland</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254523/original/file-20190118-100261-g0eace.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254523/original/file-20190118-100261-g0eace.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254523/original/file-20190118-100261-g0eace.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254523/original/file-20190118-100261-g0eace.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254523/original/file-20190118-100261-g0eace.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254523/original/file-20190118-100261-g0eace.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254523/original/file-20190118-100261-g0eace.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scotland’s wilderness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Steve Carver</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Scotland is perhaps the country with the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204611003380?via%3Dihub">most detailed</a> wilderness mapping in the world today. It has been mapped at global, continental, national, regional and local scales, each one showing progressively more detail, and higher levels of accuracy and reliability. The Scottish government has been able to use these maps to define what should count as protected “<a href="https://www.nature.scot/professional-advice/landscape-change/landscape-policy-and-guidance/landscape-policy-wild-land">wild land</a>” in the most effective way.</p>
<p>Early maps showed most wilderness was in the uninhabited highlands and suggested there were almost no wild areas around the main cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. But by zooming in and reducing the size threshold of what counted as wilderness, the government identified smaller areas of wild land nearer to cities that are just as important for recreation, and landscape, habitat and ecosystem conservation.</p>
<h2>China</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254524/original/file-20190118-100285-zi74m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254524/original/file-20190118-100285-zi74m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254524/original/file-20190118-100285-zi74m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254524/original/file-20190118-100285-zi74m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254524/original/file-20190118-100285-zi74m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254524/original/file-20190118-100285-zi74m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254524/original/file-20190118-100285-zi74m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">China’s wilderness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">International Journal of Wilderness</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>China is following suit with a similar approach and using <a href="https://ijw.org/2018-mapping-wilderness-in-mainland-china/">national level mapping</a> to define wilderness areas and help develop a new national park system. The country can be neatly divided in two as highlighted by what’s known as the “Hu Line”, a simple straight line that connects Ai-hui in the north-east to Teng-Chong in the south-west. East of this line, the country is densely populated and intensively farmed. To the west, human population is sparse and the land remains largely wild.</p>
<p>Chinese geographers are now developing methods to cope with this marked polarity in the distribution of the country’s wilderness. As with Scotland, they need to identify those smaller pockets of wild ecosystems that remain within the otherwise fragmented and developed landscapes of the east.</p>
<h2>Amazon</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254543/original/file-20190118-100282-djqhfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254543/original/file-20190118-100282-djqhfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254543/original/file-20190118-100282-djqhfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254543/original/file-20190118-100282-djqhfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254543/original/file-20190118-100282-djqhfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254543/original/file-20190118-100282-djqhfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254543/original/file-20190118-100282-djqhfi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deforestation around roads in Rondonia, Brazil, 1984-2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Google Earth</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One thing that wilderness maps are particularly good at illustrating is how wild land is being lost to the demand for food, fuel, water, timber and minerals as the human population increases. Maps show that this mainly happens through the <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6318/1423">road construction</a> associated with logging, oil and gas and mineral extraction. Images of the ongoing <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-19358-2">fragmentation of the Amazon</a> rainforest provide a good example of how roads, once constructed, open up the landscape for agriculture.</p>
<h2>Europe</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254544/original/file-20190118-100261-4opd7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254544/original/file-20190118-100261-4opd7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254544/original/file-20190118-100261-4opd7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254544/original/file-20190118-100261-4opd7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254544/original/file-20190118-100261-4opd7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254544/original/file-20190118-100261-4opd7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254544/original/file-20190118-100261-4opd7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">European wilderness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/natura2000/wilderness/pdf/Wilderness_register_indicator.pdf">Steve Carver</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the problems of global wilderness maps, there have been some attempts to overcome the impact of cross-border assumptions and inconsistencies. The variations in wilderness quality have been consistently mapped across Europe as part of an EU project to <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/natura2000/wilderness/pdf/Wilderness_register_indicator.pdf">develop a register</a> of the EU’s remaining wilderness areas. One thing that this map highlights is just how common it is to find wilderness areas at more northern latitudes that are too cold and dry for agriculture or forestry and at high altitudes where the land is too rugged to work. So we shouldn’t be surprised to see a similar pattern on the global map. </p>
<p>The scale of these kind of maps affects both the patterns we see and how we understand wilderness destruction. This in turn influences how we might respond to and manage the threats to the world’s remaining wild areas. While global maps grab the headlines, they also risk masking the detail in the underlying causes and so have limited use. They may be great for highlighting the problem, but should only be a starting point to encourage us to look deeper and help us appreciate the underlying drivers of these lost wilds.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110061/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Zooming in on deforestation and other wild habitat loss can help us work out how best to protect wilderness.Steve Carver, Senior Lecturer in Geography, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1091182018-12-21T19:33:58Z2018-12-21T19:33:58ZThe rise of modern loneliness: 4 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251555/original/file-20181219-45403-6z5tyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'The Dog' (1820-1823) by Francisco Goya.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Goya_Dog.jpg">Museo del Prado</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: As we come to the end of the year, Conversation editors take a look back at the stories that – for them – exemplified 2018.</em></p>
<p>In early December, The Wall Street Journal published a feature titled “The Loneliest Generation.”</p>
<p>“Baby boomers,” <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-loneliest-generation-americans-more-than-ever-are-aging-alone-11544541134">the article notes</a>, “are aging alone more than any generation in U.S. history, and the resulting loneliness is a looming public health threat.”</p>
<p>The irony is that – in the midst of this loneliness crisis – we’re closer and more connected than ever before. Americans <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/urbanization">are moving to cities in record numbers</a>, while <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/internet-broadband/">internet use</a> and <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/mobile/">smartphone ownership</a> continue to grow.</p>
<p>What’s going on? Shouldn’t trends that ostensibly connect people and bring them closer together mitigate, not exacerbate, loneliness? </p>
<p>The way the meaning of loneliness has shifted – from physical solitude, to psychological isolation – could offer some clues. </p>
<h2>1. To stray ‘far from neighbours’</h2>
<p>When researching the Romantic poets, Amherst College English professor Amelia Worsley discovered that <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-history-of-loneliness-91542">the concept of loneliness didn’t emerge until the late-16th century</a>. It was first used to describe the dangers of straying too far from society – to surrender the protections of town and city and enter the unknown. </p>
<p>To be lonely, according to one 17th-century glossary, was to be “far from neighbours.”</p>
<h2>2. New World loneliness</h2>
<p>As the first European explorers left their neighbors and ventured across the Atlantic, they didn’t know what they’d find. What awaited them in the New World, University of Southern California historian Peter Mancall writes, <a href="https://theconversation.com/columbus-believed-he-would-find-blemmyes-and-sciapods-not-people-in-the-new-world-104306">was left to the imagination</a>: creatures with heads in their chests, brutes with a single, massive leg and cyclops.</p>
<p>The Pilgrims didn’t encounter any of these monsters. <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-pilgrims-were-actually-able-to-survive-106990">But according to William Bradford</a>, the first governor of Plymouth Colony, they nonetheless needed to contend with “a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men.” </p>
<p>While they had God and they had each other, there wasn’t much else. A Native American raid could wipe out the entire settlement; a single strain of disease could kill off the whole group. </p>
<p>They were – in the earliest sense of the word – unbearably lonely.</p>
<h2>3. The wilderness of the web</h2>
<p>The Pilgrims, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-pilgrims-were-actually-able-to-survive-106990">due to a combination of luck and skill</a>, survived. Others soon joined them. Land was cleared, streets were laid and a country was built. </p>
<p>Over the centuries, as people grew closer and more connected, the old definition of loneliness slipped away.</p>
<p>“Modern loneliness,” Worsley writes, “isn’t just about being physically removed from other people. Instead, it’s an emotional state of feeling apart from others – without necessarily being so.”</p>
<p>Much of this new form of loneliness seems connected to another world – cyberspace – that opened up at the end of the 20th century.</p>
<p>Like the vast, untouched forests of the New World, the wilderness of the web can be imposing, unsparing and lawless. While there might not be literal monsters, trolls pounce, hackers lurk, governments spy and corporations glean data from your messages, searches and purchases.</p>
<p>What – and who – <a href="https://theconversation.com/remember-youre-being-manipulated-on-social-media-4-essential-reads-106742">can be trusted</a>?</p>
<h2>4. A sea of information</h2>
<p>Yes, all of human knowledge is at our fingertips. But this has created another problem unique to the internet age: information overload.</p>
<p>University of Nevada, Las Vegas sociologist Simon Gottschalk spent a decade studying the social and psychological effects of new information and communication technologies.</p>
<p>“Our devices constantly expose us to a barrage of colliding and clamoring messages,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-praise-of-doing-nothing-95998">he writes</a>. The unending stream of alerts and pings “deteriorates how we approach our everyday activities, deforms how we relate to each other and erodes a stable sense of self. It leads to burnout at one end of the continuum and to depression at the other.” </p>
<p>The overwhelming sea of information creates a sense of being unmoored – tugged in one direction by tweets and advertisements, spun in another by breaking news alerts and email notifications.</p>
<p>At the mercy of these forces, exposed to exploitation, unsure of whom to trust, it’s difficult not to feel small, to feel helpless – to feel alone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109118/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
As people have grown closer and more connected, the old definition of loneliness slipped away – and a new one has emerged.Nick Lehr, Arts + Culture EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1060722018-11-01T04:29:53Z2018-11-01T04:29:53ZEarth’s wilderness is vanishing, and just a handful of nations can save it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243404/original/file-20181101-173911-3wtxox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2048%2C1360&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Brazil, home to the Amazon, is one of just five 'mega-wilderness' countries.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">CIFOR</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Just 20 countries are home to 94% of the world’s remaining wilderness, excluding the high seas and Antarctica, according to our new global wilderness map, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07183-6">published today in Nature</a>. </p>
<p>A century ago, wilderness extended over most of the planet. Today, only 23% of land – excluding Antarctica – and 13% of the ocean remains free from the harmful impacts of human activities.</p>
<p>More than 70% of remaining wilderness is in just five countries: Australia, Russia, Canada, the United States (Alaska), and Brazil.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243402/original/file-20181101-173902-1xqqmg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243402/original/file-20181101-173902-1xqqmg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243402/original/file-20181101-173902-1xqqmg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243402/original/file-20181101-173902-1xqqmg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243402/original/file-20181101-173902-1xqqmg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243402/original/file-20181101-173902-1xqqmg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243402/original/file-20181101-173902-1xqqmg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243402/original/file-20181101-173902-1xqqmg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The last of the wild. Remaining marine wilderness is shown in blue; terrestrial wilderness in green.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Watson et al. 2018</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We argue that wilderness can still be saved. But success will depend on the steps these “mega-wilderness nations” take, or fail to take, to secure the future of Earth’s last remaining wild places.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243401/original/file-20181101-173884-1ai76gk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243401/original/file-20181101-173884-1ai76gk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243401/original/file-20181101-173884-1ai76gk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243401/original/file-20181101-173884-1ai76gk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243401/original/file-20181101-173884-1ai76gk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243401/original/file-20181101-173884-1ai76gk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243401/original/file-20181101-173884-1ai76gk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243401/original/file-20181101-173884-1ai76gk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mega-wilderness countries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Allan</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Wilderness areas are vast tracts of untamed and unmodified land and sea. Regardless of where they are – from the lowland rainforests of Papua New Guinea, to the high taiga forests of Russia’s Arctic, to the vast deserts of inland Australia, to the great mixing zones of the Pacific, Antarctic and Indian Oceans – these areas are the last strongholds for endangered species, and perform vital functions such as storing carbon, and buffering us against the effects of climate change. In many wilderness areas, indigenous peoples, who are often the most politically and economically marginalised of all peoples, depend on them for their livelihoods and cultures.</p>
<p>Yet despite being important and highly threatened, wilderness areas and their values are completely overlooked in international environmental policy. In most countries, wilderness is not formally defined, mapped or protected. This means there is nothing to hold nations, industry, society and community to account for wilderness conservation.</p>
<h2>Beyond boundaries</h2>
<p>Almost two-thirds of marine wilderness is in the high seas, beyond nations’ immediate control. This effectively makes it a marine wild west, where fishing fleets have a free-for-all. There are some laws to manage high-seas fishing, but there is no legally binding agreement governing high-seas conservation, although the <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2018/sea2086.doc.htm">United Nations is currently negotiating such a treaty</a>. Ensuring marine wilderness is off-limits to exploitation will be crucial.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-map-shows-that-only-13-of-the-oceans-are-still-truly-wild-100820">New map shows that only 13% of the oceans are still truly wild</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>And we cannot forget Antarctica, arguably Earth’s greatest remaining wilderness and one of the last places on the planet where vast regions have never experienced a human footfall. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243408/original/file-20181101-173887-31cpf9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243408/original/file-20181101-173887-31cpf9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243408/original/file-20181101-173887-31cpf9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243408/original/file-20181101-173887-31cpf9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243408/original/file-20181101-173887-31cpf9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243408/original/file-20181101-173887-31cpf9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243408/original/file-20181101-173887-31cpf9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243408/original/file-20181101-173887-31cpf9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Antarctica, the (almost) untouched continent.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While Antarctica’s isolation and extreme climate have helped protect it from the degradation experienced elsewhere, climate change, human activity, pollution, and invasive species increasingly threaten the continent’s wildlife and wilderness. </p>
<p>Parties to the <a href="https://ats.aq/e/ats_keydocs.htm">Antarctic Treaty</a> must act on their commitments to help reduce human impacts, and we need to urgently curb global carbon emissions before it is too late to save Antarctica.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/earths-wildernesses-are-disappearing-and-not-enough-of-them-are-world-heritage-listed-80325">Earth's wildernesses are disappearing, and not enough of them are World Heritage-listed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our maps show how little wilderness is left, and how much has been lost in the past few decades. It is hard to believe, but between 1993 and 2009 a staggering 3.3 million square kilometres of terrestrial wilderness – an area larger than India – was lost to human settlement, farming, mining and other pressures. In the ocean, the only regions free of industrial fishing, pollution and shipping are confined to the poles or remote Pacific island nations.</p>
<h2>Saving wilderness</h2>
<p>Almost every nation has signed international environmental agreements that aim to end the biodiversity crisis, halt dangerous climate change, and achieve global
sustainable development goals. We believe Earth’s remaining wilderness can only be
secured if its importance is immediately recognised within these agreements.</p>
<p>At a <a href="https://www.cbd.int/conferences/2018">summit in Egypt</a> later this month, the 196 signatory nations to the <a href="https://www.cbd.int/">Convention on Biological Diversity</a> will work alongside scientists on developing a strategic plan for conservation beyond 2020. This is a unique opportunity for all nations to recognise that Earth’s wilderness are dwindling, and to mandate a global target for wilderness conservation.</p>
<p>A global target of retaining 100% of all remaining wilderness is achievable, although it would require stopping industrial activities like mining, logging, and fishing from expanding to new places. But committing explicitly to such a target would make it easier for governments and non-governmental organisations to leverage funding and mobilise action on the ground in nations that are still developing economically.</p>
<p>Similarly, the role of wilderness in guarding against climate change – such as by storing huge amounts of carbon – could also be formally documented in the <a href="https://unfccc.int/">UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)</a>, which holds its <a href="https://unfccc.int/katowice">annual conference</a> in Poland next month. This would incentivise nations to make wilderness protection central to their climate strategies. </p>
<p>Mechanisms such as <a href="https://redd.unfccc.int/">REDD+</a>, which allows developing nations to claim compensation for conserving tropical forests they had planned to clear, could be extended to other carbon-rich wilderness areas such as intact seagrasses, and even to wildernesses in rich countries that do not receive climate aid, such as the Canadian tundra.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243394/original/file-20181101-173890-ksm1n1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243394/original/file-20181101-173890-ksm1n1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243394/original/file-20181101-173890-ksm1n1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243394/original/file-20181101-173890-ksm1n1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243394/original/file-20181101-173890-ksm1n1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243394/original/file-20181101-173890-ksm1n1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243394/original/file-20181101-173890-ksm1n1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243394/original/file-20181101-173890-ksm1n1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Boreal/Taiga Forest holds one third of the world’s terrestrial carbon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Williams</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nations have ample opportunities, through legislation and rewarding good behaviour, to prevent road and shipping lane expansion, and enforcing limits on large-scale developments and industrial fishing in their wilderness areas. They can also establish protected areas to slow the spread of industrial activity into wilderness. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-moral-value-of-wilderness-90090">The moral value of wilderness</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A diverse set of approaches must be embraced, and the private sector must work with governments so that industry protects, rather than harms, wilderness areas. Key to this will be lenders’ investment and performance standards, particularly for organisations such as the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, and the regional development banks.</p>
<p>Our planet faces not just a species extinction crisis, but also a wilderness extinction crisis. Once lost, our wild places are gone forever. This may be our last opportunity to save the last of the wild, we cannot afford to miss it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106072/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Watson receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Environmental Science Program. He is Director of the Science and Research Initiative at the Wildlife Conservation Society. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kendall Jones is affiliated with the Wildlife Conservation Society.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Allan and Jasmine Lee do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More than two-thirds of Earth’s remaining wilderness is in the hands of just five countries, according to a new global map. A concerted conservation effort is needed to save our last wild places.James Allan, Postdoctoral research fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of QueenslandJames Watson, Professor, The University of QueenslandJasmine Lee, PhD candidate, biodiversity conservation and climate change, The University of QueenslandKendall Jones, PhD candidate, Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1031142018-09-12T13:20:23Z2018-09-12T13:20:23ZAnthill 29: Inheritance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235990/original/file-20180912-133901-1qnyrtv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C31%2C1000%2C881&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gennadiy Solovyev/Shutterstock.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What do we pass onto the next generation when we’re gone? In this episode of The Anthill podcast we bring you three stories from academics who study aspects of inheritance – from inherited wealth, to the natural inheritance we leave our children, and the genetic inheritance held within our DNA. </p>
<p>The way countries tax inherited wealth varies widely across the world. In the UK, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax">inheritance tax</a> is 40% on everything above a £375,000 threshold (for properties the threshold rises to £1m), yet it doesn’t exist in Australia and Canada and works differently in France and Scandinavia. In this episode, Janette Rutterford, professor of financial management at Open University, tracks the history of inheritance tax in the UK – and the loopholes people use to get around paying it. And we ask Danny Dorling, Halford Mackinder professor of geography at the University of Oxford whether inheritance tax is fit for purpose – and what could replace it. </p>
<hr>
<p><strong><em>Click <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/podcasts/the-anthill">here</a> to listen to more episodes of The Anthill, on themes including <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-26-twins-98271">Twins</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-25-intuition-96677">Intuition</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-27-confidence-100183">Confidence</a>. And browse <a href="https://theconversation.com/podcasts">other podcasts</a> from The Conversation here.</em></strong> </p>
<hr>
<p>In the second segment, we focus on natural inheritance. Mass extinctions of species mean that the wildlife our ancestors grew up with is vanishing and it may mean future generations are left with a smaller and emptier view of nature. Scientists believe our perception of nature and wilderness is shrinking, with each new generation inheriting a smaller picture of what a healthy ecosystem looks like. We ask biologists Lizzie Jones from Royal Holloway University and Chris Sandom from the University of Sussex to help explain the concept of this “shifting baseline syndrome”. And Newcastle University’s Niki Rust talks through one of the options for dealing with it – <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/rewilding-7773">rewilding</a>, and what happened to lions she observed who had been reintroduced into reserves in Africa. </p>
<p>Sandom and Jones have also written an accompanying article for The Conversation, showcasing <a href="https://theconversation.com/forget-environmental-doom-and-gloom-young-people-draw-alternative-visions-of-natures-future-102004">drawings by young people</a> of alternative visions for nature’s future – and graphic imaginings by the artist Daniel Locke on what Britain would have looked like hundreds of thousands of years ago.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235767/original/file-20180911-144458-1hbdyi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235767/original/file-20180911-144458-1hbdyi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235767/original/file-20180911-144458-1hbdyi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235767/original/file-20180911-144458-1hbdyi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235767/original/file-20180911-144458-1hbdyi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235767/original/file-20180911-144458-1hbdyi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235767/original/file-20180911-144458-1hbdyi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235767/original/file-20180911-144458-1hbdyi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Britain 125,000 years ago: giant deer, straight-tusked elephants and rhinos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.daniellocke.com/">Daniel Locke</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the final segment of this episode we delve into the debate on genes and intelligence – and whether children’s success at school depends on their DNA. Kaili Rimfeld, a postdoctoral researcher at King’s College London, explains her new study – <a href="https://theconversation.com/genes-shown-to-influence-how-well-children-do-throughout-their-time-at-school-102520">which you can read about on The Conversation</a> – which showed that genes influence how well children do throughout their time at school. She explains how twins studies have helped scientists to understand the “heritability” of intelligence, as well as <a href="https://theconversation.com/your-genes-can-help-predict-how-well-youll-do-in-school-heres-how-we-cracked-it-62848">new tools</a>, which are helping give more personalised predictions for educational achievement. </p>
<p>But some social scientists, including as Daphne Martschenko, a PhD researcher in education at the University of Cambridge, are concerned about the ethical implications of this line of research. She recounts the controversial history of research linking genes and intelligence – which she’s just written <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/74b8m/">a new paper</a> about – and why she’s concerned about how such research might trickle down into the classroom in future. </p>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-anthill/id1114423002?mt=2"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233721/original/file-20180827-75984-1gfuvlr.png" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjb252ZXJzYXRpb24uY29tL3VrL3BvZGNhc3RzL3RoZS1hbnRoaWxsLnJzcw%3D%3D"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="268" height="68"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-conversation/the-anthill"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233716/original/file-20180827-75981-pdp50i.png" alt="Stitcher" width="300" height="88"></a> <a href="https://tunein.com/podcasts/Technology-Podcasts/The-Anthill-p877873/"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233723/original/file-20180827-75984-f0y2gb.png" alt="Listen on TuneIn" width="318" height="125"></a></p>
<hr>
<p><em>The Anthill theme music is by Alex Grey for Melody Loops.
Music in the inheritance tax segment <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee_Rosevere/The_Big_Loop_-_FML_original_podcast_score/Lee_Rosevere_-_The_Big_Loop_-_FML_original_podcast_score_-_10_A_List_of_Ways_to_Die">A list of ways to die</a> by Lee Rosevere and <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/A_A_Aalto/Fest/Bazaar">Bazaar</a> by A.A.Alto, both from the Free Music Archive. Bird sounds in the shifting baseline segment is <a href="https://freesound.org/people/reinsamba/">Nightingales</a> by reinsamba and music is <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/">Nature Kid</a> by Podington Bear via Free Music Archive. Music in the genes and intelligence segment is <a href="https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1200102">Hidden Agenda</a> by Kevin MacLeod via Incompetech and <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kai_Engel/The_Scope/Kai_Engel_-_The_Scope_-_02_Cutrains_are_Always_Drawn">Curtains Are Always Drawn</a> by Kai Engel. Archive audio on the Human Genome Project from the <a href="https://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=2405&bhcp=1">US Department of Health & Human Services</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Thank you to City, University of London’s Department of Journalism for letting us use their studios to record The Anthill. And to Anouk Millet who helped with editing and production for this episode.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103114/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
From wealth, to the natural world, to genes and intelligence, a podcast exploring the theme of inheritance.Will de Freitas, Environment + Energy Editor, UK editionAnnabel Bligh, Business & Economy Editor and Podcast Producer, The Conversation UKGemma Ware, Head of AudioJack Marley, Environment + Energy Editor, UK editionLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1008202018-08-01T02:59:08Z2018-08-01T02:59:08ZNew map shows that only 13% of the oceans are still truly wild<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229921/original/file-20180731-176698-1vumezv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Predatory fish are among the most vulnerable species to human pressures.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rich Carey/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>HJust 13% of the world’s oceans are now free from intense human activities such as fishing, according to a new map of ocean wilderness areas.</p>
<p>Our research, <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30772-3">published in the journal Current Biology</a>, shows that only 55 million square km of the global ocean can still be classified as “wilderness”, out of a total of 500 million square km. </p>
<p>There is almost no wilderness left in coastal seas, where human activities are most intense. Much of the remaining marine wilderness is clustered around the poles or near remote Pacific island nations with low populations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229918/original/file-20180731-176698-214yjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229918/original/file-20180731-176698-214yjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229918/original/file-20180731-176698-214yjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=278&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229918/original/file-20180731-176698-214yjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=278&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229918/original/file-20180731-176698-214yjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=278&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229918/original/file-20180731-176698-214yjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229918/original/file-20180731-176698-214yjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229918/original/file-20180731-176698-214yjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marine wilderness in exclusive economic zones (light blue), in areas outside national jurisdiction (dark blue), and marine protected areas (green).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jones et al. Current Biology 2018</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Humans rely on the ocean for food, livelihoods, and almost <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11538-015-0126-0">three-quarters of atmospheric oxygen</a>. We use the ocean for the <a href="https://business.un.org/en/entities/13">vast majority of global trade</a>, and <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5555e.pdf">more than 2.8 billion people rely on seafood</a> as an important protein source. It’s little wonder that more than <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Previousproducts/1301.0Feature%20Article32004">eight in ten Australians live within 50km of the coast</a>.</p>
<p>Earth’s ocean wilderness areas are home to unparalleled levels of marine life and are some of the only places where large predators are still found in historical numbers. Top predators such as sharks and tuna depend on these areas, as their slow reproduction rates make them particularly <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0011968">susceptible to decline even at mild levels of fishing</a>. </p>
<p>Even the strictest, best-managed marine reserves <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12000">cannot sustain the same levels of wildlife diversity</a> as wilderness areas. This is either because reserves are too small, or because human activities in neighbouring areas impact wildlife as soon as they swim outside of reserve boundaries. According to our research, only 4.9% of marine wilderness is currently within marine protected areas.</p>
<p>There is evidence that wilderness areas are <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0006324">more resilient to rising sea temperatures and coral bleaching</a> – stressors that cannot be halted without globally coordinated efforts to reduce emissions. These areas also give scientists a true baseline for system health, providing important information for restoring degraded marine ecosystems.</p>
<h2>Threats to wilderness</h2>
<p>Human impacts on marine ecosystems are becoming more intense and widespread
each year, threatening wilderness areas across the planet. Fishing is
now one of the most widespread activities by which humans harvest natural
resources. Industrial fishing covers 55% of the ocean, an area <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6378/904.full">four times larger than is used for terrestrial agriculture</a>. In many places, fishing has become so intense that large predators and charismatic species such as sea turtles have almost been wiped out.</p>
<p>Technological improvements have allowed humans to fish in the
<a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/6/eaat2504.full">farthest reaches of international waters</a>. In the high Arctic, places that were once safe because of year-round ice cover are <a href="https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article/75/1/61/4080407">now open to fishing and shipping</a> as warming seas melt the ice.</p>
<p>Even in nations with world-class fisheries management, such as Australia and the
United States, marine environments are being severely impacted by sediment and
nutrient runoff due to poor land management and deforestation. Sediment runoff onto the once pristine Great Barrier Reef is now <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01361">five to ten times higher than historical levels</a>, contributing to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X11006503">declining coral diversity and more frequent crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks</a>, and reducing the <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0006324">resilience of reefs</a> against climate change.</p>
<h2>Can we save the last of the wild?</h2>
<p>Marine wilderness is overlooked in both global and national conservation strategies, as these areas are often assumed to be free from threatening processes and are therefore not a priority for conservation efforts. Our results show that this is a myth – wilderness areas in the ocean and on land are <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-carbon-stores-are-going-up-in-smoke-with-vanishing-wilderness-65345">being rapidly lost</a>, and protecting what remains is crucial. The Arctic, once thought of as untouched, is now likely to see new shipping channels, fisheries, and mining operations as sea ice disappears.</p>
<p>Protecting wilderness will require a combination of national and international efforts, but the fundamental goal must be to curb the impacts of current threats such as commercial fishing, shipping, resource extraction, and land-based runoff.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yUYPSAhpqBA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In nations like Australia and Canada, which still have substantial wilderness remaining within their national waters, using marine protected areas or fishery management regulations to protect wilderness will be crucial. Because even low levels of human activity can <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12000">severely impact vulnerable species such as sharks and tuna</a>, these areas should be strictly protected and cannot allow activities like commercial fishing.</p>
<p>However, current government plans to <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-new-marine-parks-plan-is-a-case-of-the-emperors-new-clothes-81391">almost halve the area of strict protection</a> in the Australian marine reserve system do not bode well for the future of wilderness protection.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-new-marine-parks-plan-is-a-case-of-the-emperors-new-clothes-81391">Australia’s new marine parks plan is a case of the Emperor's new clothes</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While protecting wilderness within national waters is legally straightforward,
preserving wilderness on the high seas will likely prove much more challenging, as no country has jurisdiction over these areas. One option may be to harness existing international and regional agreements, such as <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/cfp/international/rfmo_en">Regional Fisheries Management Organisations</a> – international agencies formed by countries to manage shared fishing interests in a certain area. These organisations are already accustomed to set fishing limits, and have been used to close large areas of the high seas to <a href="https://www.sprfmo.int/assets/Fisheries/Conservation-and-Management-Measures/2018-CMMs/CMM-03-2018-Bottom-Fishing-8March2018.pdf">damaging bottom-trawl fishing</a>. An extension of their powers to create high seas conservation areas is certainly feasible, but this is likely to require substantial lobbying from member nations.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-laws-for-the-high-seas-four-key-issues-the-un-talks-need-to-tackle-56298">New laws for the high seas: four key issues the UN talks need to tackle</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The need for improved high-seas management is also now being recognised by the international community, with the UN currently negotiating a “Paris Agreement for the Ocean” – a <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/12/un-high-seas-conservation-treaty-ocean-protection-spd/">legally binding high-seas conservation treaty</a> to be established under the existing Law of the Sea Convention. Australia, as a wealthy nation and a signatory to fishing agreements in the Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans, has the potential to be a world leader in marine wilderness conservation if it so chooses.</p>
<p>Just like <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(16)30993-9">wilderness on land</a>, pristine oceans are difficult to restore once lost. Our research should be a clarion call for immediate action to protect the world’s remaining wild oceans so that future generations can see the sea as it once was.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100820/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kendall Jones is affiliated with the Wildlife Conservation Society</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carissa Klein receives funding from the ARC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hedley Grantham is affiliated with the Wildlife Conservation Society</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hugh Possingham receives funding from The Australian Research Council and the federal government National Environmental Science Program. He works for The University of Queensland and The Nature Conservancy (global)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Watson receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is Director of Science at the Wildlife Conservation Society. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Friedlander, Benjamin Halpern, Caitlin Kuempel, Nicole Shumway, and Oscar Venter do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The world has some 500 million square kilometres of ocean. But just 55 million square kilometres remain untouched by intensive human activities such as fishing.Kendall Jones, PhD candidate, Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, The University of QueenslandAlan Friedlander, Researcher, University of HawaiiBenjamin Halpern, Professor, University of California, Santa BarbaraCaitlin Kuempel, PhD Candidate in Conservation Science, The University of QueenslandCarissa Klein, Postdoctoral research fellow in conservation biology, The University of QueenslandHedley Grantham, Research Associate, The University of QueenslandHugh Possingham, Professor, The University of QueenslandJames Watson, Professor, The University of QueenslandNicole Shumway, PhD Candidate, The University of QueenslandOscar Venter, Associate Professor and FRBC/West Fraser research chair, Ecosystem Science and Management Progam, University of Northern British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/926522018-06-04T10:40:56Z2018-06-04T10:40:56ZSpending time alone in nature is good for your mental and emotional health<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220862/original/file-20180529-80633-loc9im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hiking the Savage River Loop in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nps.gov/locations/alaska/leave-no-trace.htm">Lian Law/NPS</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today Americans live in a world that thrives on being busy, productive and overscheduled. Further, they have developed the technological means to be constantly connected to others and to vast options for information and entertainment through social media. For many, smartphones demand their attention day and night with constant notifications. </p>
<p>As a result, naturally occurring periods of solitude and silence that were once commonplace have been squeezed out of their lives. Music, reality TV shows, YouTube, video games, tweeting and texting are displacing quiet and solitary spaces. Silence and solitude are increasingly viewed as “dead” or “unproductive” time, and being alone makes many Americans uncomfortable and anxious. </p>
<p>But while some equate solitude with loneliness, there is a big difference between being lonely and being alone. The latter is <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/lead-yourself-first-9781632866332/">essential for mental health and effective leadership</a>.</p>
<p>We study and teach outdoor education and related fields at several colleges and organizations in North Carolina, through and with other scholars at <a href="https://www.2ndnaturetrec.com/">2nd Nature TREC, LLC</a>, a training, research, education and consulting firm. We became interested in the broader implications of alone time after studying intentionally designed solitude experiences during wilderness programs, such as those run by <a href="https://www.outwardbound.org">Outward Bound</a>. Our findings reveal that time alone in nature is beneficial for many participants in a variety of ways, and is something they wish they had more of in their daily life. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221009/original/file-20180530-120508-emlwqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221009/original/file-20180530-120508-emlwqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221009/original/file-20180530-120508-emlwqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221009/original/file-20180530-120508-emlwqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221009/original/file-20180530-120508-emlwqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221009/original/file-20180530-120508-emlwqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221009/original/file-20180530-120508-emlwqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221009/original/file-20180530-120508-emlwqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">On an average day in 2015, individuals aged 15 and over spent more than half of their leisure time watching TV.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.bls.gov/TUS/CHARTS/LEISURE.HTM">Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans Time Use Survey</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reflection and challenge</h2>
<p>We have conducted research for almost two decades on <a href="https://www.outwardbound.org">Outward Bound</a> and undergraduate wilderness programs at <a href="https://www.montreat.edu/">Montreat College</a> in North Carolina and <a href="https://www.wheaton.edu/">Wheaton College</a> in Illinois. For each program, we studied participants’ experiences using multiple methods, including written surveys, focus group interviews, one-on-one interviews and field notes. In some cases, we asked subjects years later to look back and reflect on how the programs had affected them. Among other questions, our research looked at participant perceptions of the value of <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED491758">solo time outdoors</a>. </p>
<p>Our studies showed that people who took part in these programs benefited both from the outdoor settings and from the experience of being alone. These findings build on previous research that has clearly demonstrated the value of spending time in nature.</p>
<p>Scholars in fields including wilderness therapy and environmental psychology have shown that time outdoors benefits our lives in many ways. It has a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1521/jsyt.2006.25.2.80">therapeutic effect</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916509347248">relieves stress</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-4944(95)90001-2">restores attention</a>. Alone time in nature can have a calming effect on the mind because it occurs in beautiful, natural and inspirational settings. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221019/original/file-20180530-120487-1aqsvax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221019/original/file-20180530-120487-1aqsvax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221019/original/file-20180530-120487-1aqsvax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221019/original/file-20180530-120487-1aqsvax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221019/original/file-20180530-120487-1aqsvax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221019/original/file-20180530-120487-1aqsvax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221019/original/file-20180530-120487-1aqsvax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221019/original/file-20180530-120487-1aqsvax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spending time in city parks like Audubon Park in New Orleans provides some of the same benefits as time in wilderness areas, including reduced stress levels and increased energy levels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Audubon_Park%2C_New_Orleans_May_2010.jpg">InSapphoWeTrust</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nature also provides <a href="http://js.sagamorepub.com/jorel/article/view/6610">challenges</a> that spur individuals to creative problem-solving and increased self-confidence. For example, some find that being alone in the outdoors, particularly at night, is a challenging situation. Mental, physical and emotional challenges in moderation encourage personal growth that is manifested in an increased comfort with one’s self in the absence of others. </p>
<p>Being alone also can have great value. It can allow issues to surface that people spend energy holding at bay, and offer an opportunity to clarify thoughts, hopes, dreams and desires. It provides time and space for people to step back, evaluate their lives and learn from their experiences. Spending time this way prepares them to re-engage with their community relationships and full work schedules. </p>
<h2>Putting it together: The outdoor solo</h2>
<p>Participants in programmed wilderness expeditions often experience a component known as “Solo,” a time of intentional solitude lasting approximately 24-72 hours. Extensive <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED491758">research</a> has been conducted on solitude in the outdoors because many wilderness education programs have embraced the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1053825913518892">educational value</a> of solitude and silence. </p>
<p>Solo often emerges as one of the most significant parts of wilderness programs, for a variety of reasons. Alone time creates a contrasting experience to normal living that enriches people mentally, physically and emotionally. As they examine themselves in relation to nature, others, and in some cases, God, people <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/105382590702900312">become more attuned to the important matters</a> in their lives and in the world of which they are part. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YtpK_SrqzHk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Solo, an integral part of Outward Bound wilderness trips, can last from a few hours to 72 hours. The experience is designed to give participants an opportunity to reflect on their own thoughts and critically analyze their actions and decisions.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Solitary reflection enhances recognition and appreciation of key personal relationships, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/105382591103400102">encourages reorganization of life priorities</a>, and increases appreciation for alone time, silence, and reflection. People learn <a href="https://doi.org/10.7768/1948-5123.1032">lessons they want to transfer to their daily living</a>, because they have had the opportunity to clarify, evaluate and redirect themselves by setting goals for the future.</p>
<p>For some participants, time alone outdoors provides opportunity to consider the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/105382590702900312">spiritual and/or religious dimension</a> of life. Reflective time, especially in nature, often enhances spiritual awareness and makes people feel closer to God. Further, it encourages their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/105382591003300403">increased faith and trust in God</a>. This often occurs through providing ample opportunities for prayer, meditation, fasting, Scripture-reading, journaling and reflection time. </p>
<h2>Retreating to lead</h2>
<p>As Thomas Carlyle has written, “In (solitary) silence, great things fashion themselves together.” Whether these escapes are called alone time, solitude or Solo, it seems clear that humans experience many benefits when they retreat from the “rat race” to a place apart and gather their thoughts in quietness. </p>
<p>In order to live and lead effectively, it is important to be intentional about taking the time for solitary reflection. Otherwise, gaps in schedules will always fill up, and even people with the best intentions may never fully realize the life-giving value of being alone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92652/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brad Daniel is Executive Director of 2nd Nature TREC LLC, which provides training, research, education and consulting to various outdoor-oriented organizations. He serves on the Board of the Environmental Educators of North Carolina (EENC), as Chair of the Leadership Team for the Southeastern Environmental Education Alliance (SEEA), and as Co-Chair of the Symposium on Experiential Education Research (SEER) for the Association for Experiential Education (AEE). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Bobilya is co-founder and director of training and education at 2nd Nature TREC LLC, which provides training, research, education and consulting to various outdoor-oriented organizations. He is Co-chair of the Symposium on Experiential Education Research (SEER) for the Association for Experiential Education (AEE). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ken Kalisch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many studies have shown that time outdoors is good for our physical health. Three wilderness education experts explain why periods alone in nature also provide mental and spiritual benefits.Brad Daniel, Professor of Outdoor Education, Montreat CollegeAndrew Bobilya, Associate Professor and Program Director of Parks and Recreation Management, Western Carolina UniversityKen Kalisch, Associate Professor of Outdoor Education, Montreat CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/900902018-01-23T19:10:40Z2018-01-23T19:10:40ZThe moral value of wilderness<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202957/original/file-20180123-182965-1o1ivfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pause and reflect on what really makes wilderness valuable.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">John O'Neill/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Let us imagine that humanity has almost died out and only a few people remain. Out of resentment or despair, the survivors cater to their destructive urges by destroying as much of the natural world as they can. They poison rivers and lakes, drop napalm on forests, set off a few nuclear warheads. They are at ease with their conscience because no one will ever be in the position to use or appreciate the nature they are destroying. </p>
<p>They are harming no one. But surely what they are doing is wrong. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-wilderness-and-why-it-matters-36591">Explainer: wilderness, and why it matters</a>
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<p>The Australian environmental philosopher <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/philosopherszone/australian-philosophers-richard-sylvan-and-val-plumwood/5398044">Richard Sylvan</a> used this story to try to persuade us that nature has a value that is independent of our needs and desires, even our existence. </p>
<p>The predicament he imagines is a fiction. But the ethical problem is very real. Experts tell us that human activity is causing the world’s wilderness areas to <a href="https://theconversation.com/earths-wildernesses-are-disappearing-and-not-enough-of-them-are-world-heritage-listed-80325">disappear at an alarming rate</a>. In 100 years there <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/wilderness-wild-land-disappear-amazon-sahara-anthropocene-endangered-animals-a7232311.html">may be no wilderness left</a>. </p>
<p>Those who deplore this development usually focus on the negative implications for human well-being: increasing environmental dysfunction, loss of species diversity and of the unknown benefits that wilderness areas might contain. </p>
<p>But Sylvan’s thought experiment – involving the last people alive, and therefore removing the consideration of humans’ future well-being – shows us that much more is at stake. It is morally wrong to destroy ecosystems because they have value in their own right.</p>
<h2>Questions of value</h2>
<p>Some philosophers deny that something can have value if no one is around to value it. They think that ethical values exist only in our minds. Like most philosophical propositions, this position is debatable. Sylvan and many others believe that value is as much a part of the world as matter and energy. </p>
<p>But let us assume that those who deny the independent existence of values are right. How then can we condemn the destructive activities of the last people or deplore the loss of wilderness and species for any other reason than loss of something useful to humans? </p>
<p>The kind of experiences that something provides can be a reason for regarding it as valuable for what it is, and not merely for its utility. Those who appreciate wilderness areas are inclined to believe that they have this <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-wilderness-and-why-it-matters-36591">kind of value</a>. Henry David Thoreau <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-h/205-h.htm">wrote in Walden</a>: “We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life posturing freely where we never wander.”</p>
<p>The Great Barrier Reef “is the closest most people will come to Eden”, <a href="http://verityla.com/change-and-damage-beyond-belief-judith-wrights-the-coral-battleground/">said the poet Judith Wright</a>, who helped to lead a protest movement in the 1960s and 1970s against the plans of the Bjelke-Petersen Queensland government to drill for oil on the reef.</p>
<p>Thoreau and Wright value wilderness not merely because it the source of enjoyment and recreational pleasure, but also because it can teach us something profound – either through its astonishing beauty or by putting our own human lives in perspective. In this way, wild nature is valuable for much the same reasons that many people value great works of art.</p>
<p>If the last people had set about destroying all the artworks in all the great museums of the world, we would call them vandals. Objects of great spiritual or aesthetic value deserve respect and should be treated accordingly. To destroy them is wrong, regardless of whether anyone will be here to appreciate them in the future. </p>
<h2>Like nowhere else on Earth</h2>
<p>Wright and her fellow protesters aimed to make Australians realise that they possessed something remarkable that existed nowhere else on the face of the planet. They wanted Australians to recognise the Great Barrier Reef as a national treasure. They were successful. It was given World Heritage status in 1981 and was listed as national heritage in 2007. </p>
<p>The Great Barrier Reef is also recognised as the <a href="http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/about-the-reef/heritage">heritage</a> of more than 70 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups. Much of what Westerners think of as wilderness is in fact the ancestral territory of indigenous people – the land that they have cared for and treasured for many generations.</p>
<p>Recognising a wilderness area as heritage gives us another reason for thinking that its value transcends utility.</p>
<p>Heritage consists of objects, practices and sites that connect people with a past that is significant to them because of what their predecessors did, suffered or valued. Our heritage helps to define us as a community. To identify something as heritage is to accept a responsibility to protect it and to pass it on to further generations. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/earths-wildernesses-are-disappearing-and-not-enough-of-them-are-world-heritage-listed-80325">Earth's wildernesses are disappearing, and not enough of them are World Heritage-listed</a>
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<p>We have many reasons to recognise wilderness areas like the Great Barrier Reef as heritage. They are special and unique. They play a role in a history of how people learned to understand and appreciate their land. They provide a link between the culture of Aboriginal people – their attachment to their land – and the increasing willingness of non-Aboriginal Australians to value their beauty and irreplaceability. </p>
<p>The last people cannot pass on their heritage to future generations. But valuing something as heritage makes it an object of concern and respect. If people cherish and feel connected to wild environments and the creatures that live in them, they should want them to thrive long after we are gone.</p>
<p>We, who do not share the predicament of the last people, have a duty to pass on our heritage to future generations. This gives us an even stronger moral reason to ensure the survival of our remaining wilderness areas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90090/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janna Thompson is affiliated with the Green Party as a volunteer</span></em></p>Imagine being one of the last few people alive. Would that make it ok to destroy the natural world? This thought experiment reveals the true value of nature, beyond the benefits to humans.Janna Thompson, Professor of Philosophy, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/803252017-07-03T03:44:59Z2017-07-03T03:44:59ZEarth’s wildernesses are disappearing, and not enough of them are World Heritage-listed<p>Earth’s last intact wilderness areas are being <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-carbon-stores-are-going-up-in-smoke-with-vanishing-wilderness-65345">rapidly destroyed</a>. More than 5 million square km of wilderness (around 10% of the total area) have been <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(16)30993-9">lost in the past two decades</a>. If this continues, the consequences for both people and nature will be catastrophic.</p>
<p>Predominantly free of human activity, especially industrial-scale activities, large wilderness areas host a huge range of environmental values, including endangered species and ecosystems, and critical functions such as storing carbon and providing fresh water. Many indigenous people and local communities, who are often politically and economically marginalised, depend on wilderness areas and have deep cultural connections to them.</p>
<p>Yet despite being important and highly threatened, wilderness areas have been almost completely ignored in international environmental policy. Immediate proactive action is required to save them. The question is where such action could come from.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12976/full">paper published in Conservation Biology</a>, we argue that the United Nations’ <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/conventiontext/">World Heritage Convention</a> should expand the amount of wilderness included in its list of Natural World Heritage Sites (<a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/?&type=natural">NWHS</a>). </p>
<p>Wilderness areas are underrepresented among the 203 sites currently on the list. The World Heritage Committee’s <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/sessions/41com/">meeting in Poland this week</a> offers a good opportunity to redress the balance.</p>
<h2>Whither wilderness?</h2>
<p>The World Heritage Convention was adopted in 1972 by <a href="http://en.unesco.org/">UNESCO</a> (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to conserve the world’s most valuable natural and cultural sites – places of exceptional importance to all of humanity and future generations. Each one is unique and irreplaceable. Currently, 193 countries (almost the entire world) are parties to the convention, which has inscribed 203 natural sites around the world.</p>
<p><a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/criteria/">World Heritage Status</a> is granted to places with “Outstanding Universal Value”, which is defined based on three pillars. First, a site must meet one of the four criteria for listing as natural World Heritage (aesthetic value, geological value, biological processes, and biodiversity conservation). Second, a site must have “integrity” and “intactness” of its values (in other words, it must be in excellent condition). Finally, a site must be officially protected by the national or subnational government under whose jurisdiction it falls.</p>
<p>Wilderness areas can be associated with all four of the natural criteria, as well as the integrity and intactness requirements. What’s more, a wilderness by definition cannot be recreated once it is lost. The argument for protecting wilderness areas by adding them to the NWHS list is therefore compelling.</p>
<p>We created the most up-to-date maps of terrestrial wilderness using <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12558">recent maps of human pressure</a> and assessed the World Heritage Convention’s current coverage of wilderness areas. We found that some 777,000 square km (around 2% of the total) are already protected in 52 Natural World Heritage Sites.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176540/original/file-20170703-28842-11ir1nu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176540/original/file-20170703-28842-11ir1nu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176540/original/file-20170703-28842-11ir1nu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176540/original/file-20170703-28842-11ir1nu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176540/original/file-20170703-28842-11ir1nu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176540/original/file-20170703-28842-11ir1nu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176540/original/file-20170703-28842-11ir1nu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176540/original/file-20170703-28842-11ir1nu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Very little of the world’s wilderness (green) is within natural World Heritage Sites (pink).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>For example, more than 90% of the World Heritage-listed <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1094">Purnululu National Park</a> in the Kimberley region of Western Australia can be defined as a wilderness area. Similarly, the <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1432">Okavango Delta</a> in Botswana features more than 18,000 square km of wilderness, containing many of the world’s most endangered large mammals.</p>
<h2>Wilderness boosts heritage value</h2>
<p>In these cases, wilderness areas are likely contributing to the Oustanding Universal Value of of these World Heritage Areas – which as explained above is a key consideration in how they are managed and protected. </p>
<p>One way to strengthen this protection further would be to redraw the boundaries of natural World Heritage Areas to include more wilderness. This would help to preserve the <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-half-the-worlds-most-important-natural-sites-are-under-threat-its-time-to-protect-them-72202">conditions that allow ecosystems and other heritage values to thrive</a>.</p>
<p>Our study identified broad gaps in wilderness coverage by the World Heritage Convention. Some places are already protected by national governments and could therefore be added to UNESCO’s list, such as the <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5875/">Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve</a> in Myanmar, which contains 4,000 square km of wilderness, and the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060529000118/http://parksinperil.org/wherewework/southamerica/bolivia/protectedarea/eduardo.html">Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna Reserve</a> in Bolivia, which has 9,000 square km.</p>
<p>The places we have identified, and others, could potentially be designated as new Natural World Heritage Sites if they meet the other strict criteria for Outstanding Universal Values and integrity.</p>
<p>The World Heritage Convention could better achieve its objectives and make a substantial contribution to the conservation of wilderness areas by doing these four things: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>formally acknowledge the Outstanding Universal Values of wilderness areas</p></li>
<li><p>strengthen the current protection of wilderness within NWHS</p></li>
<li><p>expand or reconfigure current NWHS to include more wilderness, and</p></li>
<li><p>designate new NWHS in wilderness areas. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>It’s up to national governments to submit sites for inscription as NWHS, and we urge them to consider wilderness when doing so. This will strengthen their applications, and provide wilderness areas with the extra protection they need.</p>
<p>The UNESCO World Heritage Committee’s <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/sessions/41com/">meeting in Poland this week</a> will consider two sites with significant wilderness areas for World Heritage status: Qinghai Hoh Xil Nature Reserve in China and Los Alerces National Park in Argentina. We urge the committee to approve these sites, and use this to spur further opportunities to raise the profile of wilderness conservation worldwide. It is an obvious win-win.</p>
<p>The clock is ticking fast for our last wilderness areas and the biodiversity they protect. Immediate action is needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80325/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Allan receives a stipend from The Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Watson receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is Director of Science and Research Initiative at the Wildlife Conservation Society. </span></em></p>Wilderness areas are vitally important, yet are largely overlooked by the United Nations’ list of natural World Heritage. This week’s meeting in Poland is a chance to redress that balance.James Allan, PhD candidate, School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, The University of QueenslandJames Watson, Associate Professor, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/722022017-01-31T08:49:08Z2017-01-31T08:49:08ZMore than half the world’s most important natural sites are under threat: it’s time to protect them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154917/original/image-20170131-13257-wf2cem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Simien mountains in Ethiopia are one of the world's most threatened natural heritage sites. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Simien mountains image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Would we knock down the pyramids or flatten the Acropolis to make way for housing estates, roads or farms? You would hope not. Such an indictment would deprive future generations of the joy and marvel we all experience when visiting or learning about such historic places. </p>
<p>Yet right now, across our planet, many of the United Nations’ <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list">World Heritage sites</a> that have been designated for natural reasons are being rapidly destroyed in the pursuit of short-term economic goals.</p>
<p>In our paper published in <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320716310138">Biological Conservation</a>, we found that expanding human activity has damaged more than 50 of the 203 natural sites, and 120 have lost parts of their forests over the past 20 years. Up to 20 sites risk being damaged beyond repair. </p>
<p>So how can we better look after these precious sites?</p>
<h2>Jewels in the crown</h2>
<p>Globally recognised areas that contain the Earth’s most beautiful and important natural places are granted natural World Heritage status by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation). Each natural World Heritage site is unique and therefore irreplaceable. </p>
<p>Current sites include iconic landscapes such as <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/308">Yosemite National Park</a> in the United States, and important biodiversity conservation areas such as <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/156">Serengeti National Park</a> in Tanzania.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154920/original/image-20170131-13238-gd4nfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154920/original/image-20170131-13238-gd4nfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154920/original/image-20170131-13238-gd4nfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=277&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154920/original/image-20170131-13238-gd4nfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=277&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154920/original/image-20170131-13238-gd4nfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=277&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154920/original/image-20170131-13238-gd4nfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154920/original/image-20170131-13238-gd4nfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154920/original/image-20170131-13238-gd4nfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Wildebeest gather at the river’s edge on migration in Serengeti National Park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wildebeest image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>The <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/convention/">World Heritage Convention</a> strives to protect natural World Heritage sites and keep their condition as close to pristine as possible. As with those hundreds of cultural World Heritage sites such as Petra and Masada, no human modification or damage is acceptable. These sites are the natural world’s crown jewels.</p>
<p>We examined the degree of <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12558">human pressure</a> (including roads, agriculture, urbanisation and industrial infrastructure) and direct forest loss across areas with natural World Heritage status. </p>
<p>These changes are not compatible with maintaining the natural heritage of these places. And should sites be damaged beyond repair, we will have lost some of the common heritage of humankind forever.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154918/original/image-20170131-13243-1lg7ahf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154918/original/image-20170131-13243-1lg7ahf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154918/original/image-20170131-13243-1lg7ahf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154918/original/image-20170131-13243-1lg7ahf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154918/original/image-20170131-13243-1lg7ahf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154918/original/image-20170131-13243-1lg7ahf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154918/original/image-20170131-13243-1lg7ahf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154918/original/image-20170131-13243-1lg7ahf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Chitwan National Park, Nepal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rhino image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<h2>Which sites fared worst?</h2>
<p>We found that human pressure within sites has increased in every continent except Europe over the last two decades. Asia is home to the worst-affected sites, including <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/338">Manas Wildlife Sanctuary</a> in India, <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/609">Komodo National Park</a> in Indonesia, and <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/284">Chitwan National Park</a> in Nepal. Development has also badly affected <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/9">Simien National Park</a> in Ethiopia and it has been listed as World Heritage “in danger”. European sites, such as <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/387">St Kilda</a>, were already highly modified 20 years ago and have largely remained as such since then.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154913/original/image-20170131-13220-1jboz9f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154913/original/image-20170131-13220-1jboz9f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154913/original/image-20170131-13220-1jboz9f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154913/original/image-20170131-13220-1jboz9f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154913/original/image-20170131-13220-1jboz9f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154913/original/image-20170131-13220-1jboz9f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154913/original/image-20170131-13220-1jboz9f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154913/original/image-20170131-13220-1jboz9f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Change in human footprint between 1993 and 2009 across natural World Heritage sites inscribed prior to 1993. Sites that experienced an increase (which may threaten their unique values) are shown in red, while sites that experienced a decrease are shown in green. Site boundaries are not to scale and have been enlarged for clarity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Allan et al. 2017</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A majority of the sites have lost areas of forest. <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/256">Wood Buffalo National Park</a> in Canada lost 2,581 square kilometres (11.7%) and <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/196">Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve</a> in Honduras lost 365 square km (8.5%) of forest since 2000.</p>
<p>The processes behind why the sites lost forest cover are diverse. In the <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/196">Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve</a>, also “in danger”, illegal drug trafficking created insecurity and instability in the region, which allowed widespread illegal deforestation and <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140130-drug-trafficking-deforestation-central-america-environment-policy-reform/">illegal settlement to occur</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154915/original/image-20170131-13251-133628m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154915/original/image-20170131-13251-133628m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154915/original/image-20170131-13251-133628m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154915/original/image-20170131-13251-133628m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154915/original/image-20170131-13251-133628m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154915/original/image-20170131-13251-133628m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154915/original/image-20170131-13251-133628m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154915/original/image-20170131-13251-133628m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deforestation in Patuca National Park in Honduras.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">J.Polisar</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In North America, even celebrated places like <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/28">Yellowstone</a> have been affected, losing some 6% of forest cover. This, and the losses in <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/256">Wood Buffalo National Park</a>, is almost certainly due to the largest pine beetle outbreaks on record. These are stripping trees of foliage and making them more susceptible to fire. </p>
<p>Although pine beetle damage is a semi-natural phenomenon, it is being <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/pine-beetles/rosner-text">assisted by human-caused climate change</a>, as winters are no longer cold enough to kill off the beetles. This is notoriously hard to manage on the ground, but instead requires the United States and Canada to strengthen their efforts to fight climate change nationally and on the global stage.</p>
<h2>Time to stop paving paradise</h2>
<p>The 192 signatories to the World Heritage Convention need to respond to these findings. The World Heritage Committee must use information like this to immediately assess these highly threatened sites and work with nations to try to halt the erosion. </p>
<p>The UNESCO World Heritage Committee meets again this <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/sessions/41COM">July in Poland</a>. It is not too late; with urgent intervention most sites can still be retained.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154916/original/image-20170131-13264-u7zf40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154916/original/image-20170131-13264-u7zf40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154916/original/image-20170131-13264-u7zf40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154916/original/image-20170131-13264-u7zf40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154916/original/image-20170131-13264-u7zf40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154916/original/image-20170131-13264-u7zf40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154916/original/image-20170131-13264-u7zf40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154916/original/image-20170131-13264-u7zf40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A mining site in Kahuzi Biega Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">A K Plumptre WCS</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The method we have used makes it much easier to identify natural World Heritage sites that may need to be added to the <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/danger/">“in danger” list</a> so extra attention and resources are channelled towards saving them. </p>
<p>Sites such as Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, which have lost so much forest in such a short time, need to be identified and those nations supported in averting further decline. Ultimately, World Heritage status can be retracted if the values a site is listed for are undermined. This would be an international embarrassment for the host nation. </p>
<p>The global community can play a role by holding governments to account so that they take the conservation of natural World Heritage sites seriously. We already do this for many of our <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1620/">cultural sites</a>, and it is time to give natural sites the equal recognition and support they deserve. </p>
<p>Just as we would defend the Colosseum in Rome, Petra in Jordan, or Mont St Michel in France, we must fight against the <a href="http://africageographic.com/blog/the-serengeti-highway-battle-won-the-war-with-the-courts-continue/">planned highway</a> across the <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/156">Serengeti</a> in Tanzania, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/mining-and-resources/uranium-mining-in-kakadu-at-a-crucial-point-20141127-11vmr3.html">uranium mining</a> in <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/147">Kakadu</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2016/s4428759.htm">logging of the Styx Valley</a> in Australia, and <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/764/">forests being cleared for agriculture in Sumatra</a>, Indonesia. This work is a call to action to save our natural world heritage.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72202/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Watson receives funding from The Australian Research Council. He is the Director of Science and Research Initiative at the Wildlife Conservation Society, </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Allan receives a stipend from The Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Maxwell receives a stipend from The Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>You’d hope we wouldn’t flatten the pyramids to build a highway. But that’s exactly what’s happening to the world’s natural heritage sites.James Watson, Associate Professor, The University of QueenslandJames Allan, PhD candidate, School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, The University of QueenslandSean Maxwell, PhD candidate, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/704892016-12-18T19:01:38Z2016-12-18T19:01:38ZThe global road-building explosion is shattering nature<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150479/original/image-20161216-26123-1u15ld8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Timber stockpiled along a logging road.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Day Edryshov/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you asked a friend to name the worst human threat to nature, what would they say? Global warming? Overhunting? Habitat fragmentation?</p>
<p>A <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6318/1423">new study</a> suggests it is in fact road-building. </p>
<p>“Road-building” might sound innocuous, like “house maintenance” – or even positive, conjuring images of promoting economic growth. Many of us have been trained to think so.</p>
<p>But an unprecedented spate of road building is happening now, with around <a href="https://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/global-land-transport-infrastructure-requirements.html">25 million kilometres of new paved roads</a> expected by 2050. And that’s causing many environmental researchers to perceive roads about as positively as a butterfly might see a spider web that’s just fatally trapped it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150483/original/image-20161216-26111-1m2wfj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150483/original/image-20161216-26111-1m2wfj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150483/original/image-20161216-26111-1m2wfj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150483/original/image-20161216-26111-1m2wfj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150483/original/image-20161216-26111-1m2wfj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150483/original/image-20161216-26111-1m2wfj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150483/original/image-20161216-26111-1m2wfj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150483/original/image-20161216-26111-1m2wfj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Malayan tapir killed along a road in Peninsular Malaysia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">WWF-Malaysia/Lau Ching Fong</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shattered</h2>
<p>The new study, led by Pierre Ibisch at Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, Germany, ambitiously attempted to map all of the roads and remaining ecosystems across Earth’s entire land surface.</p>
<p>Its headline conclusion is that roads have already sliced and diced Earth’s ecosystems into some 600,000 pieces. More than half of these are less than 1 square kilometre in size. Only 7% of the fragments are more than 100 square km. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150482/original/image-20161216-26082-sim94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150482/original/image-20161216-26082-sim94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150482/original/image-20161216-26082-sim94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150482/original/image-20161216-26082-sim94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150482/original/image-20161216-26082-sim94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150482/original/image-20161216-26082-sim94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150482/original/image-20161216-26082-sim94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150482/original/image-20161216-26082-sim94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Remaining roadless areas across the Earth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">P. Ibisch et al. Science (2016)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That’s not good news. Roads often open a <a href="http://e360.yale.edu/feature/as_roads_spread_in_tropical_rain_forests_environmental_toll_grows/2485/">Pandora’s box</a> of ills for wilderness areas, promoting illegal deforestation, fires, mining and hunting. </p>
<p>In the Brazilian Amazon, for instance, our existing research shows that 95% of all forest destruction occurs <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000632071400264X">within 5.5km of roads</a>. The razing of the Amazon and other tropical forests produces <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/deforestation-and-global-warming/">more greenhouse gases</a> than all motorised vehicles on Earth. </p>
<p>Animals are being imperilled too, by vehicle roadkill, habitat loss and hunting. In just the past decade, poachers invading the Congo Basin along the expanding network of logging roads have snared or gunned down <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0059469">two-thirds of all forest elephants</a> for their valuable ivory tusks.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150485/original/image-20161216-26123-17e24pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150485/original/image-20161216-26123-17e24pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150485/original/image-20161216-26123-17e24pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150485/original/image-20161216-26123-17e24pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150485/original/image-20161216-26123-17e24pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150485/original/image-20161216-26123-17e24pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150485/original/image-20161216-26123-17e24pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150485/original/image-20161216-26123-17e24pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deforestation along roads in the Brazilian Amazon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Google Earth</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Worse than it looks</h2>
<p>As alarming as the study by Ibisch and colleagues sounds, it still probably underestimates the problem, because it is likely that the researchers missed half or more of all the roads on the planet.</p>
<p>That might sound incompetent on their part, but in fact keeping track of roads is a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fee.1316/full">nightmarishly difficult task</a>. Particularly in developing nations, illegal roads can appear overnight, and many countries lack the capacity to govern, much less map, their unruly frontier regions.</p>
<p>One might think that satellites and computers can keep track of roads, and that’s partly right. Most roads can be detected from space, if it’s not too cloudy, but it turns out that the maddening variety of road types, habitats, topographies, sun angles and linear features such as canals can fool even the smartest computers, none of which can map roads consistently.</p>
<p>The only solution is to use human eyes to map roads. That’s what Ibisch and his colleagues relied upon – a global crowdsourcing platform known as <a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=5/51.500/-0.100">OpenStreetMap</a>, which uses thousands of volunteers to map Earth’s roads.</p>
<p>Therein lies the problem. As the authors acknowledge, human mappers have worked far more prolifically in some areas than others. For instance, wealthier nations like Switzerland and Australia have quite accurate road maps. But in Indonesia, Peru or Cameroon, great swathes of land have been poorly studied. </p>
<p>A quick look at OpenStreetmap also shows that cities are far better mapped than hinterlands. For instance, in the Brazilian Amazon, my colleagues and I <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000632071400264X">recently found</a> 3km of illegal, unmapped roads for every 1km of legal, mapped road.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150488/original/image-20161216-26111-1glmffe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150488/original/image-20161216-26111-1glmffe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150488/original/image-20161216-26111-1glmffe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150488/original/image-20161216-26111-1glmffe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150488/original/image-20161216-26111-1glmffe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150488/original/image-20161216-26111-1glmffe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150488/original/image-20161216-26111-1glmffe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150488/original/image-20161216-26111-1glmffe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A logging truck blazes along a road in Malaysian Borneo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rhett Butler/Mongabay</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What this implies is that the environmental toll of roads in developing nations – which sustain most of the planet’s critical tropical and subtropical forests – is considerably worse than estimated by the new study.</p>
<p>This is reflected in statistics like this: Earth’s wilderness areas have shrunk by a tenth in just the past two decades, as my colleagues and I <a href="http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2016/09/watson_wilderness_2016.pdf">reported earlier this year</a>. Lush forests such as the Amazon, Congo Basin and Borneo are shrinking the fastest.</p>
<h2>Road rage</h2>
<p>The modern road tsunami is both necessary and scary. On one hand, nobody disputes that developing nations in particular need more and better roads. That’s the chief reason that around 90% of all new roads are being built in developing countries.</p>
<p>On the other hand, much of this ongoing road development is poorly planned or chaotic, leading to severe environmental damage. </p>
<p>For instance, the more than 53,000km of “development corridors” being planned or constructed in Africa to access minerals and open up remote lands for farming will have enormous environmental costs, <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(15)01309-3">our research suggests</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150491/original/image-20161216-26093-frslwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150491/original/image-20161216-26093-frslwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150491/original/image-20161216-26093-frslwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150491/original/image-20161216-26093-frslwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150491/original/image-20161216-26093-frslwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150491/original/image-20161216-26093-frslwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150491/original/image-20161216-26093-frslwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150491/original/image-20161216-26093-frslwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Orangutans in the wilds of northern Sumatra.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Suprayudi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This year, both the Ibisch study and <a href="http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2016/09/watson_wilderness_2016.pdf">our research</a> have underscored how muddled the UN Sustainable Development Goals are with respect to vanishing wilderness areas across the planet.</p>
<p>For instance, the loss of roadless wilderness conflicts deeply with goals to combat harmful climate change and biodiversity loss, but could improve our capacity to feed people. These are tough trade-offs.</p>
<p>One way we’ve tried to promote a win-win approach is via a <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v513/n7517/full/nature13717.html">global road-mapping strategy</a> that attempts to tell us where we should and shouldn’t build roads. The idea is to promote roads where we can most improve food production, while restricting them in places that cause environmental calamities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150480/original/image-20161216-26089-10g5ufe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150480/original/image-20161216-26089-10g5ufe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150480/original/image-20161216-26089-10g5ufe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150480/original/image-20161216-26089-10g5ufe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150480/original/image-20161216-26089-10g5ufe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150480/original/image-20161216-26089-10g5ufe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=660&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150480/original/image-20161216-26089-10g5ufe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=660&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150480/original/image-20161216-26089-10g5ufe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=660&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Part of a global road-mapping strategy. Green areas have high environmental values where roads should be avoided. Red areas are where roads could improve agricultural production. And black areas are ‘conflict zones’ where both environmental values and potential road benefits are high.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">W. F. Laurance et al. Nature (2014)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The bottom line is that if we’re smart and plan carefully, we can still increase food production and human equity across much of the world. </p>
<p>But if we don’t quickly change our careless road-building ways, we could end up opening up the world’s last wild places like a flayed fish – and that would be a catastrophe for nature and people too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70489/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Laurance receives funding from the Australian Research Council and other scientific and philanthropic organisations. He is the director of the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science at James Cook University, and founder and director of ALERT--the Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers & Thinkers.
</span></em></p>A new mapping study shows that roads have sliced and diced almost the entire land surface of Earth, leaving huge areas prone to illegal logging, mining and hunting.Bill Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/664032016-10-11T19:10:09Z2016-10-11T19:10:09ZThe world’s vanishing wild places are vital for saving species<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141014/original/image-20161009-21439-v9a8vm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cheetahs have extraordinarily low genetic diversity, placing them at risk. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Copyright Amy Nichole Harris/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In science, it’s rare that a new idea comes along that stops people in their tracks. For ecologists, this has just happened, in a paper that found that species living in wild places have <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6307/1532">more genetic diversity</a> than the same species living in areas dominated by people.</p>
<p>Why is this big news? For starters, it’s a completely new reason to worry about the decline of wilderness.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I showed recently that wilderness areas have <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-carbon-stores-are-going-up-in-smoke-with-vanishing-wilderness-65345">shrunk by a tenth globally</a> in just the past two decades. Large wild areas are now mostly confined to cold, dry or otherwise inhospitable parts of the planet such as the far north and big deserts. Biologically rich rainforests have been destroyed the fastest.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141015/original/image-20161009-21454-y606ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141015/original/image-20161009-21454-y606ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141015/original/image-20161009-21454-y606ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141015/original/image-20161009-21454-y606ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141015/original/image-20161009-21454-y606ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141015/original/image-20161009-21454-y606ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141015/original/image-20161009-21454-y606ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In Southeast Asia, as elsewhere, human activities are expanding while wilderness areas are shrinking. Shown here are changes in the Human Footprint over the past two decades.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">O. Venter et al. (2016) Scientific Data</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The traditional reasons for <a href="https://wilderness.org/article/why-protect-wilderness">defending wilderness areas</a> are that they store massive stocks of carbon, produce clean drinking water, limit destructive flooding, harbour countless rare species, generate billions of dollars for local communities via ecotourism, and provide a scientific basis for understanding how nature is supposed to function in a rapidly changing world. These are compelling enough. </p>
<p>But this new finding is a game-changer, because it shows that <a href="http://www.yourgenome.org/facts/what-is-genetic-variation">genetic variation</a>, the raw fuel for evolution, relies on wilderness too. </p>
<h2>Environmental armageddon</h2>
<p>The history of life on Earth has been a lot like what soldiers experience in a war: long periods of relative stability and even boredom punctuated by sudden periods of stark terror. Right now, we are living in one of the scariest times since life arose <a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/evolution/australian-scientists-have-found-the-oldest-known-fossils-to-date--an-amazing-37-billion-years-old/news-story/2f178eea447ab7de3cea6770d93f3b2c">at least 3.7 billion years ago</a>.</p>
<p>Life on Earth today is being battered by massive habitat disruption, climate change, invasive species, foreign pathogens, pollution, overhunting, species extinctions and the disruption of entire ecological communities. And it’s all down to humankind, which currently dominates <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12558">three-quarters of the planet</a>, according to our recent estimate. </p>
<p>Faced with this environmental onslaught, which will surely worsen in the coming century as the Earth struggles to support up to <a href="http://www.iflscience.com/environment/human-population-may-reach-12-million-2100/">12 billion people</a>, the options for species are frighteningly limited.</p>
<h2>Change or die</h2>
<p>As Charles Darwin argued more than a century ago, hidden within most species is a surprisingly large amount of genetic variation. Humans vary in height, weight, body shape, skin colour, physiology and biochemistry. </p>
<p>Wolves, first domesticated around <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27577-ancient-dna-suggests-dogs-split-from-wolves-40000-years-ago/">40,000 years ago</a>, have since been bred into dog varieties ranging from tiny Pekinese to Great Danes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141017/original/image-20161009-21454-17ylc6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141017/original/image-20161009-21454-17ylc6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=173&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141017/original/image-20161009-21454-17ylc6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=173&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141017/original/image-20161009-21454-17ylc6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=173&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141017/original/image-20161009-21454-17ylc6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=217&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141017/original/image-20161009-21454-17ylc6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=217&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141017/original/image-20161009-21454-17ylc6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=217&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The world’s hugely varied breeds of domestic dog all arose from a single species of wolf.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For most organisms (except simple bacteria and other organisms that reproduce by cloning), there are two main sources of genetic variation: mutations and sex. </p>
<p>If life were a card game, then mutations create new cards. Most mutations are bad for the individual – such as those that cause the bleeding disease <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haemophilia_A">Haemophilia A</a> – or are more or less neutral. But now and then a mutation generates a highly beneficial wild card. </p>
<p>While mutations create new cards, sex shuffles the deck, mixing our genes into new combinations. That’s important too, because by doing so one can discard bad cards. Individuals with bad cards tend to die or fail to reproduce, removing their dud genes from the population. And every once in a while a really good combination of genes pops up, like a Royal Flush, that can then spread rapidly through the population. </p>
<p>The ability of species to change and adapt, or evolve, is vital. We tend to think of evolution as an incremental process, requiring thousands or millions of years, but that’s not always so. When things get rough, species with lots of genetic variation can evolve surprisingly fast.</p>
<h2>Evolution in action</h2>
<p>Consider what happened when scientists introduced <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myxomatosis">myxomatosis</a> to Australia in 1950 to kill off introduced European rabbits, which were stripping the continent’s vegetation bare. At first, most of the rabbits died. But a few, which by random chance were more resistant to the pathogen, survived and reproduced. Within a few decades rabbits had evolved a far greater capacity to resist the disease. </p>
<p>And just as remarkably, myxomatosis evolved as well. It became less deadly. If you’re a pathogen, you <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimal_virulence">don’t want to kill your host straight away</a> because then you’ll die too.</p>
<p>Instead, you just want to make your host sick, or kill it very slowly. That way, you can spread to lots of other hosts. So while rabbits became more resistant, myxomatosis also became less virulent. And it all happened in just a couple of decades.</p>
<p>Something similar is happening with Tasmanian devils, which are being killed off by a bizarre <a href="http://www.tassiedevil.com.au/tasdevil.nsf/thedisease/bd2717c762779ee8ca2576f1001d0110">contagious cancer</a> that spreads when the notoriously scrappy marsupials fight with one another.</p>
<p>Recent studies show that genes which produce greater resistance to the cancer are <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/tasmanian-devils-are-rapidly-evolving-resistance-contagious-cancer">rapidly increasing</a> in the population. Unfortunately, the devils don’t have a lot of genetic variation but hopefully they’ll have enough variation remaining to get past the killer cancer.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141016/original/image-20161009-21416-1r7ffr1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141016/original/image-20161009-21416-1r7ffr1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141016/original/image-20161009-21416-1r7ffr1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141016/original/image-20161009-21416-1r7ffr1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141016/original/image-20161009-21416-1r7ffr1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141016/original/image-20161009-21416-1r7ffr1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141016/original/image-20161009-21416-1r7ffr1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Tasmanian Devil suffering from facial tumour disease, a contagious cancer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Menna Jones</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Things are even scarier for the cheetah, the world’s fastest land animal. While built for speed on the African plains, cheetahs will have a hard time outrunning new environmental challenges. That’s because they have almost <a href="http://cheetah.org/about-the-cheetah/genetic-diversity/">zero genetic variation</a>. </p>
<p>Roughly 12,000 years ago, cheetahs went through a severe population bottleneck, eroding most of their genetic variation. The species is paying a price for this today, with reduced sperm quality, kinked tails, and palate deformities among other problems. These maladies arise both from low genetic variation and from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inbreeding">inbreeding</a>, which occurs because individual cheetahs are so similar genetically.</p>
<p>Sadly, this could make Cheetahs perilously vulnerable to an “<a href="https://conservationbytes.com/2008/08/25/the-extinction-vortex/">extinction vortex</a>”. The vortex starts with a population crash, perhaps from a newly-introduced disease, habitat loss or climate change. The remaining individuals are already so severely inbred and depleted of genetic variation that they reproduce and survive poorly. Their population dwindles and crashes into oblivion. </p>
<h2>We need wilderness</h2>
<p>That is why the new study is so significant: it shows that a particular species living in a wild area has more genetic variation than does the same species living in a place where humans abound. The study was based on over 4,500 different species of amphibians and mammals scattered across the planet and was published in one of the world’s best scientific journals. This gives us a lot of confidence in the strength of its conclusions.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that the world’s wilderness areas are under assault. We are not just losing wild places with clean air and water and beautiful vistas. We are losing the raw fuel of evolution and adaptation that has taken life millions of years to accumulate. </p>
<p>Given the breakneck pace at which we are currently changing the planet, eroding the capacity of species to adapt to new challenges is absolutely the last thing we want to be doing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141018/original/image-20161009-21433-1lby1ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141018/original/image-20161009-21433-1lby1ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141018/original/image-20161009-21433-1lby1ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141018/original/image-20161009-21433-1lby1ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141018/original/image-20161009-21433-1lby1ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141018/original/image-20161009-21433-1lby1ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141018/original/image-20161009-21433-1lby1ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The sun sets over the wilds of the Western Ghats in southern India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">William Laurance</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66403/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Laurance receives funding from the Australian Research Council and other scientific and philanthropic organisations. He is the director of the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science at James Cook University, and founder and director of ALERT--the Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers & Thinkers.
</span></em></p>Wildlife in wilderness areas have more genetic diversity, which is better for their survival.Bill Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/653452016-09-16T04:28:28Z2016-09-16T04:28:28ZThe world’s carbon stores are going up in smoke with vanishing wilderness<p>The Earth’s last intact wilderness areas are shrinking dramatically. In a <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(16)30993-9">recently published paper</a> we showed that the world has lost 3.3 million square kilometres of wilderness (around 10% of the total wilderness area) since 1993. Hardest hit were South America, which has experienced a 30% wilderness loss, and Africa, which has lost 14%. </p>
<p>These areas are the final strongholds for endangered biodiversity. They are also essential for sustaining complex ecosystem processes at a regional and planetary scale. Finally, wilderness areas are home to, and provide livelihoods for, <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/109/21/8032">indigenous peoples</a>, including many of the world’s most politically and economically marginalised communities. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/82EXWdjrNvA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">James Watson and James Allan explain their recent research.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But there’s another important service that many wilderness areas provide: they store vast amounts of carbon. If we’re to meet our international climate commitments, it is essential that we preserve these vital areas. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137819/original/image-20160914-4972-173r5xl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137819/original/image-20160914-4972-173r5xl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137819/original/image-20160914-4972-173r5xl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137819/original/image-20160914-4972-173r5xl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137819/original/image-20160914-4972-173r5xl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137819/original/image-20160914-4972-173r5xl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137819/original/image-20160914-4972-173r5xl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many of the world’s biological realms now contain very low levels of wilderness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.greenfiresciene.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Climate consequences</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/native-forests-can-help-hit-emissions-targets-if-we-leave-them-alone-44849">Large, intact ecosystems</a> store more terrestrial carbon than disturbed and degraded ones. They are also far more resilient to disturbances such as rapid climate change and fire. </p>
<p>For instance, the boreal forest remains the largest ecosystem undisturbed by humans. It <a href="http://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(09)00189-X">stores roughly a third of the world’s terrestrial carbon</a>.</p>
<p>Yet this globally significant wilderness area is increasingly threatened by forestry, oil and gas exploration, human-lit fires and climate change. These collectively threaten a biome-wide depletion of its carbon stocks, considerably worsening global warming. Our research shows that more than 320,000sqkm of boreal forest has been lost in the past two decades.</p>
<p>Similarly, in Borneo and Sumatra in 1997, human-lit fires razed recently logged forests that housed large carbon stores. <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v420/n6911/full/nature01131.html">This released billions of tonnes of carbon, which some estimate was equivalent to 40% of annual global emissions</a> from fossil fuels. We found that more than 30% of tropical forest wilderness was lost since the early 1990s, with only 270,000sqkm left on the planet.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137818/original/image-20160914-4955-luw4w9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137818/original/image-20160914-4955-luw4w9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137818/original/image-20160914-4955-luw4w9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137818/original/image-20160914-4955-luw4w9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137818/original/image-20160914-4955-luw4w9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137818/original/image-20160914-4955-luw4w9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137818/original/image-20160914-4955-luw4w9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deforestation of Sumatra’s lowland rainforest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bill Laurance</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How do we stop the loss?</h2>
<p>All nations need to step up and mobilise conservation investments that can help protect vanishing wilderness areas. These efforts will vary based on the specific circumstances of different nations. But there is a clear priority everywhere to focus on halting current threats – including <a href="https://theconversation.com/roads-to-ruin-the-pitfalls-of-the-g20s-infrastructure-bonanza-38418">road expansion</a>, destructive mining, unsustainable forestry and large-scale agriculture – and enforcing existing legal frameworks. </p>
<p>For example, most of the world’s remaining tropical rainforests are under an onslaught of development pressures. Much of sub-Saharan Africa is being opened up by over 50,000km of planned “development corridors” that criss-cross the continent. These will slice deep into remaining wild places. </p>
<p>In the Amazon, plans are being made to construct more than <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6272/456.2">300 large hydroelectric dams</a> across the basin. Each dam will require networks of new roads for dam and powerline construction and maintenance.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/damming-northern-australia-we-need-to-learn-hard-lessons-from-the-south-53885">northern Australia</a>, schemes are afoot to transform the largest savannah on Earth into a food bowl, jeopardising its extensive carbon stores and biodiversity.</p>
<p>We need to enforce existing regulatory frameworks aimed at protecting imperilled species and ecosystems. We also need to develop new conservation policies that provide land stewards with incentives to protect intact ecosystems. These must be implemented at a large scale. </p>
<p>For example, conservation interventions in and around imperilled wilderness landscapes should include creating large protected areas, establishing mega-corridors between those protected areas, and enabling indigenous communities to establish community conservation reserves.</p>
<p>In Sabah, Borneo, <a href="http://e360.yale.edu/feature/in_imperiled_forests_of_borneo_a_rich_tropical_eden_endures/2723/">scientists from the UK’s Royal Society</a> have been working with local government to establish networks of interlinked reserves stretching from the coast to the interior mountains. This provides a haven for wildlife that migrate seasonally to find new food sources. </p>
<p>Funding could also be used to establish ecosystem projects that recognise the direct and indirect economic values that intact landscapes supply. These include providing a secure source of fresh water, reducing disaster risks and storing vast quantities of carbon. </p>
<p>For example, in <a href="https://www.cbd.int/financial/0008.shtml">Ecuador and Costa Rica</a>, cloud forests are being protected to provide cities below with a year-round source of clean water. In Madagascar, carbon funding is saving one of the most biodiversity-rich tropical forests on the planet, the <a href="https://standfortrees.org/en/protect-a-forest/makira-natural-park-project">Makira forest</a>. </p>
<p>We argue for immediate, proactive action to protect the world’s remaining wilderness areas, because the alarming loss of these lands results in significant and irreversible harm for nature and humans. Protecting the world’s last wild places is a cost-effective conservation investment and the only way to ensure that some semblance of intact nature survives for the benefit of future generations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65345/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Watson receives funding from Australian Research Council. He is the Director of Science and Research Initiative at the Wildlife Conservation Society.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Laurance receives funding from the Australian Research Council and other scientific and philanthropic organisations. He is the director of the JCU Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, and founder and director of ALERT--the Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers & Thinkers.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Mackey receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Allan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The world has lost 10% of its wilderness areas in the past 20 years and, with it, vast stores of carbon.James Watson, Associate professor, The University of QueenslandBill Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, James Cook UniversityBrendan Mackey, Director of the Griffith Climate Change Response Program, Griffith UniversityJames Allan, PhD candidate, School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.