Losing the wilderness: a 10th has gone since 1992 – and gone for good
The world’s last great wildernesses are shrinking at an alarming rate. In the past two decades, 10% of the earth’s wilderness has been lost due to human pressure, a mapping study by the University of Queensland has found.
Over the course of human history, there has been a major degradation of 52% of the earth’s ecosystems, while the remaining 48% is being increasingly eroded. Since 1992, when the United Nations signed up to the Rio convention on biological diversity, three million square kilometres of wilderness have been lost.
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4ba0ec_3301ad78606a4df88f575a45e701fe26~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_500,h_286,al_c,q_80,enc_auto/4ba0ec_3301ad78606a4df88f575a45e701fe26~mv2.jpg)
photo credit: McMac70