Where the Wild Places Are

Forest and Bird, Volume 20, Issue 4, 1 November 1989, Page 6

Where the Wild Places Are

BOUT ONE-THIRD of the global land surface is wilderness, according to an inventory drawn up from US military maps. The research, compiled by the chairman of the Sierra Club and a researcher, only included blocks of wilderness over 400,000 ha in size. All areas with roads, settlements, buildings, airports, railroads, pipelines, powerlines, canals, causeways, aqueducts, mines, dams and reservoirs, and oil wells, were eliminated by the researchers. The study found almost 4.8 thousand million ha of undeveloped land in 77 countries plus Antarctica. Most of the settled continents are still between one quarter and one third wild, Europe being an exception. Less than 20 percent of the wilderness around the world is protected. Countries with the largest areas of wilderness are: Greenland, 99 percent; Maruitania, 69 percent; Canada, 65 percent; Algeria, 59 percent; Soviet Union, 34 percent; Australia, 30 percent; Saudi Arabia, 28 percent. As the tables show, over 60 percent of wilderness is inhospitable snow, ice or desert. According to the inventory, New Zealand's wilderness areas are North West Nelson and South West New Zealand.