Human activity that damages nature

According to the researchers, the main reason for the relatively moderate growth of the human effect is to be found mainly in countries with high incomes and a low level of corruption. In those countries there is now more efficient exploitation of natural resources and much has been done to preserve the environment. Efficiency is measured in part by per capita changes in the footprint in each country. The researchers examined the possibility that those countries transferred the demand for raw materials to poor countries from which there are imports of raw materials and various products, thereby increasing the human influence on nature in other parts of the world.

However, they concluded that this process does not explain the low rate in the growth of the influence. However, they also acknowledged that they did not examine activities like energy production and mining. These activities have significant and numerous effects on the environment and many of them are aimed at providing fuel and mined resources from poor countries to rich countries.

The heaviest pressure on natural resources is in areas suitable for agricultural use. A notable example of this is the cutting down of rain forests for crops like palm oil, or cattle ranching in South America and southeast Asia. The researchers found that in extensive areas suited to agriculture, there was hardly any change in the impact of the human footprint since those had already been changed in the past by human activity. However, in areas where the extent of the land suitable for agricultural use was more limited, there was a significant increase in the human effect on nature.

The areas where the human influence was limited are mainly deserts like the Gobi in Asia and the Sahara in North Africa. Moreover, there remain extensive areas unaffected by humanity in the rain forests in the Congo River basin in Africa and in the Amazonas forests in South America. However, in the Amazonas there is also an accelerated process of fragmenting of the area by roads and the spread of settlements and agricultural activity. These are liable to expand the influence of humans to additional forest areas.

The researchers examined 772 ecoregions, or regions of great ecological importance, and found that during the period covered by the study, in 71 percent of these ecoregions there was increasing pressure from human activity.

Zafrir Rinat