研究人員在《當(dāng)代生物學(xué)》期刊上發(fā)表的研究報告稱，過去20年里，世界各地的荒野地區(qū)出現(xiàn)了災(zāi)難性的下降。他們證實，這種驚人的損失包括20世紀(jì)90年代以來全球荒野面積的十分之一，是阿拉斯加面積的兩倍，以及亞馬遜一半的面積。亞馬遜和中部非洲遭受的打擊最大。
研究人員說，這項研究結(jié)果強(qiáng)調(diào)，迫切需要制定國際政策，認(rèn)識到荒野地區(qū)價值，并解決它們面臨的前所未有的威脅。
“全球重要的荒野地區(qū)，盡管它們是瀕臨絕種的生物多樣性的據(jù)點，是當(dāng)?shù)貧夂虻木彌_和調(diào)節(jié)器，而且是世界上許多政治和經(jīng)濟(jì)上被邊緣化的群體（原始部落）的棲息地，但是在環(huán)境政策中完全被忽視了，” 澳大利亞昆士蘭大學(xué)和紐約野生動物保護(hù)協(xié)會的詹姆士·沃森博士說。“沒有任何政策保護(hù)這些地區(qū)，它們淪為世界發(fā)展的犧牲品。我們可能會有10到20年的時間來扭轉(zhuǎn)這一局面。國際政策機(jī)制必須認(rèn)識到，在還沒有為時過晚之前，要保護(hù)荒野地區(qū)，采取行動極為必要。我們可能只有10到20年的時間來扭轉(zhuǎn)這種情況?！?/font>
沃森說，許多政策的關(guān)注點都放在物種的喪失上，對于整個生態(tài)系統(tǒng)的大規(guī)模損失幾乎沒有人注意，尤其是荒野地區(qū)的研究相對較少。為了填補(bǔ)這一空白，研究人員繪制了全球荒野地區(qū)的地圖，“荒野”被定義為生物和生態(tài)上的區(qū)域性景觀，沒有人類干擾的地區(qū)。然后，研究人員將他們最新繪制的地區(qū)與20世紀(jì)90年代初用同樣方法繪制的地圖進(jìn)行了比較。
比較結(jié)果表明，共3010萬平方公里（約占世界陸地面積的20%）現(xiàn)在仍然是荒野，大多數(shù)位于北美洲，亞洲北部，北非和澳大利亞大陸。但是，這兩個地圖之間的比較顯示，在這幾年，估計330萬平方公里（近10%）的荒野地區(qū)已經(jīng)消失了。這些損失主要發(fā)生在南美洲，下降了30%，以及非洲損失了14%。
“在短短二十年時間里，荒野的損失面積是驚人的”，北英屬哥倫比亞大學(xué)的奧斯卡 文特爾博士說?！拔覀冃枰私饣囊暗貐^(qū)的重要性，要知道它們在世界上正在大幅減少，否則我們會愚蠢地認(rèn)為，對荒野地區(qū)的保護(hù)是由于其地處偏遠(yuǎn)。如果沒有積極的全球干預(yù)措施，我們可能會失去大自然王冠上的最后一顆寶石。一旦它消失了，你不能恢復(fù)荒野，支撐這些生態(tài)系統(tǒng)的生態(tài)過程也隨之消失，它永遠(yuǎn)不會回到它過去的狀態(tài)。我們目前所能做的唯一的選擇就是主動保護(hù)”。
沃森說，聯(lián)合國以及其它國家和組織在主要的多邊環(huán)境協(xié)議中，忽視了全球重要的荒野地區(qū)，這種情況必須改變。
“如果我們不迅速采取行動，地球上將僅僅殘留極小面積的荒野地區(qū)，這對于保護(hù)、氣候變化，對于地球上的原始部落都是災(zāi)難，”沃森說?！拔覀冇胸?zé)任為我們的孩子和他們的后代采取行動?！?/font>
“英文原文”
A tenth of the world's wilderness lost since the 1990s, study finds
Researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology show catastrophic declines in wilderness areas around the world over the last 20 years. They demonstrate alarming losses comprising a tenth of global wilderness since the 1990s - an area twice the size of Alaska and half the size of the Amazon. The Amazon and Central Africa have been hardest hit.
The findings underscore an immediate need for international policies to recognize the value of wilderness areas and to address the unprecedented threats they face, the researchers say.
"Globally important wilderness areas—despite being strongholds for endangered biodiversity, for buffering and regulating local climates, and for supporting many of the world's most politically and economically marginalized communities—are completely ignored in environmental policy," says Dr James Watson of the University of Queensland in Australia and the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York. "Without any policies to protect these areas, they are falling victim to widespread development. We probably have one to two decades to turn this around. International policy mechanisms must recognize the actions needed to maintain wilderness areas before it is too late. We probably have one to two decades to turn this around."
Watson says much policy attention has been paid to the loss of species, but comparatively little was known about larger-scale losses of entire ecosystems, especially wilderness areas which tend to be relatively understudied. To fill that gap, the researchers mapped wilderness areas around the globe, with "wilderness" being defined as biologically and ecologically intact landscapes free of any significant human disturbance. The researchers then compared their current map of wilderness to one produced by the same methods in the early 1990s.
This comparison showed that a total of 30.1 million km2 (around 20 percent of the world's land area) now remains as wilderness, with the majority being located in North America, North Asia, North Africa, and the Australian continent. However, comparisons between the two maps show that an estimated 3.3 million km2 (almost 10 percent) of wilderness area has been lost in the intervening years. Those losses have occurred primarily in South America, which has experienced a 30 percent decline in wilderness, and Africa, which has experienced a 14 percent loss.
"The amount of wilderness loss in just two decades is staggering" Dr Oscar Venter of the University of Northern British Colombia. "We need to recognize that wilderness areas, which we've foolishly considered to be de-facto protected due to their remoteness, is actually being dramatically lost around the world. Without proactive global interventions we could lose the last jewels in nature's crown. You cannot restore wilderness, once it is gone, and the ecological process that underpin these ecosystems are gone, and it never comes back to the state it was. The only option is to proactively protect what is left".
Watson says that the United Nations and others have ignored globally significant wilderness areas in key multilateral environmental agreements and this must change.
"If we don't act soon, there will only be tiny remnants of wilderness around the planet, and this is a disaster for conservation, for climate change, and for some of the most vulnerable human communities on the planet," Watson says. "We have a duty to act for our children and their children."
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