April 24, 2015

This Stat Will Make Deforestation Hit Home

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.<a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Brazil-Amazon-Deforestation/f9883b21fb55497b9faa946d7ac683da/8/0">Andre Penner</a>/AP

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Okay, so deforestation is sad, and it’s Arbor Day so we should be extra sad about it. But there are so many things to be sad about, right? Well maybe this stat, from a study that came out last month, will make the loss of the world’s forests sink in for you:

More than 70 percent of the worlds’s forests are within 1 kilometer of a forest edge. Thus, most forests are well within the range where human activities, altered microclimate and nonforest species may influence and degrade forest ecosystems.

That’s right, we’ve arrived at the point where the majority of the forest in the world is just a short walk from the stuff humans have built. If you need that in graph form, here you go:

Science Advances

According to the study, which was published in the journal Science Advances, the largest remaining contiguous forests are in the Amazon and the Congo River Basin. The study also synthesized past forest fragmentation research and found that breaking up habitats to this degree has reduced biodiversity by as much as 75 percent in some areas.

Happy Arbor Day…

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