Pierre Ibisch and colleagues published in Science a global map of roadless areas and their conservation status. Roads are threatening the integrity of the landscape and cause damage to habitat and wildlife. Only small areas on our planet are unaffected by roads and the remaining “wild” patches are not greater than 100km² as Ibisch and colleagues showed. From the abstract: “The planet’s remaining large and ecologically important tracts of roadless areas sustain key refugia for biodiversity and provide globally relevant ecosystem services. Applying a 1-kilometer buffer to all roads, we present a global map of roadless areas and an assessment of their status, quality, and extent of coverage by protected areas. About 80% of Earth’s terrestrial surface remains roadless, but this area is fragmented into ~600,000 patches, more than half of which are <1 square kilometer and only 7% of which are larger than 100 square kilometers. ”
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