The world’s wilderness areas are disappearing

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Lisbeth
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The world’s wilderness areas are disappearing

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Posted on 1 November 2018 by News Desk in News, Research, Wildlife and the Decoding Science post series.

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Red lechwe antelope in the Okavango Delta in Botswana © Thomas Dressler/Getty

Media release from Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

Producing the first comprehensive fine-scale map of the world’s remaining marine and terrestrial wild places, conservation scientists writing in the journal Nature say that just 23% of the world’s landmass can now be considered wilderness, with the rest – excluding Antarctica – lost to the direct effects of human activities.

These disturbing findings are particularly troubling as numerous recent studies reveal that Earth’s remaining wilderness areas are increasingly important buffers against the effects of climate change and other human impacts. The authors note two upcoming gatherings of key decision makes will be crucial to stopping the current rate of loss.

Said the paper’s lead author James Watson of WCS and the University of Queensland: “These results are nothing short of a horror story for the planet’s last wild places. The loss of wilderness must be treated in the same way we treat extinction. There is no reversing once the first cut enters. The decision is forever.”

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World map showing the remaining wilderness areas © Nature

The authors describe wilderness areas as those places that do not have industrial level activity within them according to the marine and terrestrial human footprint. Local communities can live within them, hunt and fish, etc.

Various analyses reveal that wilderness areas provide increasingly important refuges for species that are declining in landscapes dominated by people. In the seas, they are the last regions that still contain viable populations of top predators, such as tuna, marlins and sharks.

In addition, wilderness areas are also places where enormous amounts of carbon are stored and sequestered with intact ecosystems being at least twice important than similar degraded habitats when it comes carbon mitigation.

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The top 20 countries that contain 94% of the world’s wilderness © Nature

The loss of wilderness is not just a biodiversity conservation and climate issue. Many wildernesses are home to millions of indigenous people who rely on them for maintaining their long bio-cultural connections to land and sea. Their loss is eroding many cultures around the world.

As bleak as these recent findings are, the authors say there is still a chance for Earth’s remaining wilderness to be protected. Incredibly, just 20 nations hold 94% of the worlds marine and terrestrial wilderness areas (excluding Antarctica and the High Seas), with five mega wilderness nations (Russia, Canada, Australia, United States and Brazil) containing 70%. The authors argue that these nations have an enormous role to play to secure the last of the wild.

Said John Robinson, WCS Executive Vice President for Global Conservation at WCS and a co-author of the paper: “Wilderness will only be secured globally if these nations take a leadership role. Right now, across the board, this type of leadership is missing. Already we have lost so much. We must grasp these opportunities to secure the wilderness before it disappears forever.”

Full report: James E. M. Watson, James R. Allan, Oscar Venter, Jasmine Lee, Kendall R. Jones, John G. Robinson, Hugh P. Possingham (2018) Protect the last of the wild. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-33380-4


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Re: Scientists warn that the world’s wilderness areas are disappearing

Post by Richprins »

It is interesting and would bear further study as to how many areas are being "repopulated" by nature, though? :-?


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Re: Scientists warn that the world’s wilderness areas are disappearing

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There are people all over by now; difficult that any area gets back belonging only to nature -O-


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Re: Scientists warn that the world’s wilderness areas are disappearing

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World Wildlife Day March 03/2022 – The UN promotes the sustainable use of endangered species

By Deborah Vorhies and Francis Vorhies, Deborah Vorhies is the Chief Operating Officer of the African Wildlife Economy Institute at Stellenbosch University. Dr Francis Vorhies is the Institute’s director - 28 Feb 2022

The wildlife economy has the potential to transform, enhance, and maintain landscapes in Africa and elsewhere that deliver biodiversity conservation, climate resilience, inclusive economic opportunities, and community well-being.
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The theme of World Wildlife Day which falls this year on 3 March is “Recovering key species for ecosystem restoration”. The United Nations states on its official World Wildlife Day website that in light of the reliance on wildlife and biodiversity-based resources by people across the planet, the aim this year is to “drive the debate towards the imperative need to reverse the fate of the most critically endangered species”. The goal is to support the restoration of habitats and ecosystems and to promote the sustainable use of the resources by humanity.

This is an ambitious target: Increasing the populations of endangered species, restoring their habitats, and at the same time promoting the sustainable use of these species. Is this all possible? Doesn’t the promotion of the use of a species threaten its conservation? And would it not be more effective to ban the use of endangered species rather than promoting their use even with an aim to make this use sustainable?

Why is the UN promoting species use for the conservation of species? The mission statement for the World Wildlife Day notes that people everywhere already rely on these resources to meet their needs, “from food, to fuel, medicines, housing, and clothing. Millions of people also rely on nature as the source of their livelihoods and economic opportunities.”

The reality is that we already use wildlife and the imperative is to ensure this use is sustainable, i.e. that the use should not be detrimental to the survival of the species.

A second reason is embedded in the UN call to support the restoration of wildlife habitats. Landscape restoration for wildlife involves converting current land use — e.g. land used for crop farming or livestock — to natural habitat where wildlife populations can thrive. For this conversion to be sustainable, it must support local livelihoods and generate inclusive economic opportunities for the landowner and land users — whether those users are communities, public sector authorities, companies, or individuals.

Aligning landscape restoration with the sustainable use of wild resources provides an economic incentive for land users and owners to restore habitats. By enabling the landscape to meet the needs of people with its wild resources, we enhance the conservation status of wildlife and their habitats. This is the wildlife economy.

The wildlife economy has the potential to transform, enhance, and maintain landscapes in Africa and elsewhere that deliver biodiversity conservation, climate resilience, inclusive economic opportunities, and community well-being. This potential is why the UN is promoting the sustainable use of endangered species — the use of wild species aligns conservation with development at the landscape level.

The growth of private and community wildlife ranching in countries like Namibia, South Africa, and Zambia demonstrates the potential for restoring habitats and recovering key species through the promotion of sustainable use. Cases of private ownership and use of endangered species leading to their recovery include the Cape mountain zebra, the bontebok, and the blesbok.

The South African government highlights its successes in this area by pointing to the increase in the economic utilisation of various species that has been undertaken since the 1980s in an effort to safeguard them. It argues that a positive has been that species involved have invariably become strongly established over the years. Examples it offers are “the sale and re-establishment of elephant, rhino and crocodile, the stringently controlled trophy hunting industry and the propagation of cycads. In addition, there is the almost century-old ostrich industry in South Africa.”

Since the 1980s, there has been a massive expansion of the wildlife ranching sector in the country, helping to restore tens of thousands of hectares of arid and semi-arid landscape and enabling a large expansion in wildlife populations including endangered species. The economy of this sector is diversified offering a variety of wildlife-based products including wildlife viewing, hunting, fishing, wild meat and hides, and medicinal plants. This experience demonstrates how a wildlife economy based on sustainable use can conserve wildlife and habitats.

There is, however, considerable work needed to develop an inclusive and sustainable wildlife economy not only in southern Africa, but across the continent. Policies and regulatory frameworks are needed to enable landowners to restore landscapes and utilise wild resources that also ensure inclusive livelihood opportunities and responsible wildlife management.

All players in the conservation field should support efforts to enhance the enabling environment for the wildlife economy across the continent. In so doing, they will be contributing to the UN’s commitment to promoting sustainable use as clearly stated in its Sustainable Development Goal 15: “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.” DM


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Re: The world’s wilderness areas are disappearing

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World Heritage Site at Lake Malawi threatened by planned water purification plant

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Road building takes place through pristine forest in Namaso Bay which overlooks Lake Malawi. (Photo: Lake Shepherd)

By Don Pinnock | 15 Mar 2022

The Environmental and Social Impact Assessment required for the $11m project has been found to be flawed and even its list of precautions has been breached.
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It seemed to be a textbook case in getting it right for villages along Lake Malawi’s shoreline. Social planning at its best — funded by Arab oil that will save young girls trudging to and from the crocodile-infested lake with buckets balanced on their heads.

Sunken pumps would lift water from the lake to a purification plant and then it would be pushed to a storage facility on the nearby Nkudzi Hill. From there, gravity would feed it to thankful villagers. The project would be run by the Southern Region Water Board and funded by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development and the European Investment Bank.

What could go wrong? Almost everything, it turns out.

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Road building takes place through pristine forest in Namaso Bay which overlooks Lake Malawi. Mud from the construction is sliding into Namaso Bay, threatening fish species that occur only in that area of the park and nowhere else on Earth. (Photo: Lake Shepherd)

The planned site overlaps the Nkhudzi Hill and Lake Malawi National Park, a Unesco World Heritage Site. The mountain is covered in old-growth forest and is home to endangered flora and fauna, including pangolins, which are critically endangered. It is also sacred to the Chewa tribe, who have not been consulted.

The Environmental and Social Impact Assessment required for the $11-million project has been found to be flawed and even its list of precautions has been breached. The contractor, Plem/Alghanim, which is ripping down the ancient forest and blasting rocks out of the way for a road, is being investigated for improper procurement of the contract. Loose boulders are being pushed down the mountainside with no concern for erosion, landslides or wildlife.

A 4,000 cubic litre water tank will be built on the top of the mountain, which is known for earth tremors. Mud from the construction is sliding into Namaso Bay, threatening fish species that occur only in that area of the park and nowhere else on Earth. With the cyclone season approaching, ever more mud will be washed into Namaso Bay. If the chemicals used in water purification ever got into the lake it would precipitate an ecological disaster.

Communities have been given false information that the potable water will be available free. Hotels along the intended pipe route have not been engaged and do not intend to connect with the pipe as they already have their own water systems in place directly from the lake.

In other words, it’s a mess and it could have been avoided. There are several other sites in the area far more suitable and cheaper to develop, but these have been ignored — as has a petition of more than 5,000 people calling for the construction to halt.

Environmental organisations have demanded that the European Investment Bank freeze funding, “conditional on Malawi and the Southern Region Water Board honouring its local and international laws and agreements and the preservation of the World Heritage Site” by building elsewhere.

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Road building takes place through pristine forest in Namaso Bay which overlooks Lake Malawi, threatening local wildlife and plant life. (Photo: Lake Shepherd)

Lake Malawi National Park was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1984 and is at the southern end of Lake Malawi, which lies in the Western Rift Valley and is one of the deepest lakes in the world. It was the world’s first freshwater underwater park, declared to protect aquatic communities. The steep hills immediately behind the shoreline are within the protection area to prevent eroded sediments from polluting the lake.

The park has archaeological sites that have yielded one of the longest Iron Age pottery sequences in southern Africa, dating back to the year 320.

As you read this, ancient trees are crashing to the ground and huge boulders are being blasted to make a road to the mountaintop for the storage tank. Streams are being diverted, damaging access roads, flooding property and blocking drains with sediment.

Lower down, the forest is being cleared for the purification plant. Villagers had to take cover when unannounced blasting rained rocks on their village. It’s breeding time for many birds, but they are being displaced from their nests by the blasts.

To facilitate the underwater pumps, a 300m jetty is planned which will disfigure Nkhudzi Bay, one of the most beautiful bays on Lake Malawi. It is likely to affect the hydrology and change beach formation.

Malawian archaeologist Yusuf Juwayeyi was distraught about the construction.

“I fear that this project will destroy known and yet to be discovered archaeological sites in this Unesco-inscribed and protected national park.

“The project should not be allowed to proceed at its current proposed location. There is no shortage of places in the area where this project can be relocated to without disturbing this World Heritage Site,” said Juwayeyi.

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A local poster protests against the road being built through a forest in Namaso Bay. (Image: Supplied)

Lake Malawi National Park protects about 1,000 species of fish, some 99% of them endemic. The lake has the largest number of fish species of any in the world (around 3,000), most of them extraordinarily beautiful cichlids. The importance of their extraordinary radiating speciation for the study of evolution is comparable to that of Darwin’s finches in the Galapagos Islands.

Potential damages flagged by the Southern Region Water Board at the inception of the project included the generation of dust and particulate matter emission, soil contamination, accidental or intentional disposal of chemicals, water pollution and siltation, loss of vegetation cover, disruption of water supply and an increase in Aids, spread by imported workers. These were not seen as reasons to hold up the construction.

Work began before an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (Esia) was approved, stopped briefly, then started again when the Esia was “adjusted” to be more compliant.

Questions have been raised about why it’s located in the park. A group calling themselves Concerned Citizens and Residents wrote to the Kuwait Fund pointing out the damage its grant is enabling, but have had no reply. The European Development Bank has also yet to respond.

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Road building takes place through pristine forest in Namaso Bay. The construction appears to violate the protocols of both the Kuwait Fund and the European Investment Bank and has raised protests from Unesco. (Photo: Lake Shepherd)

The construction appears to violate the protocols of both the Kuwait Fund and the European Investment Bank and has raised protests from Unesco. According to the Kuwait Fund, “The rapid economic growth taking place in many developing countries carries a potentially negative impact on the environment and human welfare in those countries. Hence, such growth needs accompanying policies that carefully scrutinise the environmental impact of each project and ensure all the necessary mitigating measures are adopted.

“Projects with environmental preservation and indigenous resource development receive high priority during decision-making on financing new projects.”

It appears the fund is not policing its own protocols, though the project is set to create long-term negative consequences for the Lake Malawi National Park and the country’s economy.

Unesco recommended that alternative locations be considered, allowing water to be provided to people while avoiding any potential impacts on the World Heritage Site. It suggested that the Esia be revised to address the several areas of concern noted and then resubmitted to Unesco before taking a final decision. Failure to take these steps and desecration of the area could mean the area would lose its World Heritage Site status.

Despite this, the project is rolling ahead, which raises some questions about who will benefit. According to Concerned Citizens and Residents, communities are unaware that the water will not be free and that there will only be 15 digital prepaid water points. This “silence” seems to be a strategy to solicit their consent.

Roads now being blasted through the forest will permit access to poachers and tree cutting for charcoal production.

There have been suggestions that the location of the project has to do with election votes or that the $11-million project provides opportunities for skimming at all levels, but nobody is prepared to put their name to the allegations for fear of victimisation. DM/OBP


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The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
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