<
https://www.earth.com/news/how-does-land-abandonment-affect-biodiversity/>
"The past half a century has witnessed an increased exodus of human populations
from rural to urban areas, with over 55 percent of the world’s population
currently living in cities (a percentage expected to rise to 68 percent by
2050). A major effect of this gradual decrease in rural populations is that the
land they leave behind leads to a significant increase in abandoned fields and
pastures, forestry areas, factories, mines, or even entire human settlements.
A new perspective piece published in the journal
Science has recently
investigated how biodiversity is affected by land abandonment and what this
entails for ecology and conservation.
“The factors that drive depopulation and consequently also land abandonment are
intensifying due to issues like climate change and the rapidly changing
geopolitical landscape,” said study lead author Gergana Daskalova, a research
fellow in Biodiversity, Ecology, and Conservation at the International
Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine, for example, has already created new
abandonment hotspots. Abandonment is a globally important process. The scale at
which this is happening around the world urged us to put the spotlight on the
places people have left behind as a potential source of future solutions for
conservation, while also protecting human livelihoods.”
Although the precise amount of abandoned land around the globe is unknown,
scientists estimate that it could comprise up to 400 million hectares (nearly
half the size of Australia). Most of this land is in the Northern Hemisphere,
with 117 million ha in the former Soviet Union alone."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-poverty-india-democracy-us-restoration-china/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
