Wilderness Areas are Biologically Intact
As our broad definition of “wilderness” implies, a core aspect of wilderness is biological intactness. Biological intactness can be measured in a variety of ways, and several organizations have conducted inventories of the remaining wilderness on our planet using different metrics.
Although our global wilderness resource is being depleted rapidly – and is increasingly threatened by climate change – these inventories all indicate that there are still very large blocks of wilderness to protect! There are also large areas on our planet that are degraded, but could be restored over time.
View select wilderness inventories and maps
Biodiversity is the sum total of life, that wealth of species, ecosystems, and ecological processes that makes our living planet what it is – still the only place in the universe where we know with certainty that life exists – and its loss is irreversible…protecting wilderness is an essential part of the global struggle to conserve biodiversity. Wilderness: Earth’s Last Wild Places, Introduction, Russell A. Mittermeier et al.