Study shows roads have fragmented the planet’s wilderness areas
“A global map of roadless areas and their conservation status”, published by Science, is the most comprehensive inventory of roads and roadless areas in the world and shows just how fast we are losing wild places across the planet. Geos Institute’s Dr. Dominick DellaSala is one of the co-authors. You can listen to him talk about the study in a Jefferson Exchange interview.
Roads have done much to help humanity spread across the planet and maintain global movement and trade. However, roads also damage wild areas and rapidly contribute to habitat degradation and species loss. Ibisch et al. cataloged the world’s roads. Though most of the world is not covered by roads, it is fragmented by them, with only 7% of land patches created by roads being greater than 100 km2. Furthermore, environmental protection of roadless areas is insufficient, which could lead to further degradation of the world’s remaining wildernesses.
Media coverage
- The Global Road-Building Explosion Is Shattering Nature (Elsevier SciTech Connect)
- These Are the Most Valuable Roadless Areas Left on Earth (National Geographic).
- Humans have now carved up the Earth’s wilderness into 600,000 little pieces (The Washington Post)
- New map reveals shattering effect of roads on nature (The Guardian)
- World is fragmented into 600,000 pieces (Greenwire)
- Straßen zerfurchen die Natur (Seeker)
- Caminos y carreteras trocean los paisajes de la Tierra en más de 600.000 pedazos (La Vanguardia)
- Straßen zerfurchen die Natur (Wiener Zeitung)
- Straßen zerstückeln fast die ganze Welt (Spiegel Online)
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Robert Macnee, Ph.D. is Deputy Director of Resilience Services at Climate Resilience Consulting, where he helps governments, institutions, and communities reduce climate risk in equitable and practical ways. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Management focused on climate change impacts on health and communities, and brings over a decade of experience spanning economic development, resilience planning, and implementation.
Samantha Medlock is President of Climate Risk Advisors, helping communities and organizations advance equity, sustainability, and resilience. Her career began chasing floods as a local official in Texas Flash Flood Alley—a hands-on experience that still shapes her approach to climate and disaster risk management.
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