A new study says continuing man-made deforestation has left only two "continuous rainforests" virtually untouched in the world: the Amazon in Brazil and the Congo in Africa. But this situation isn't expected to last for long.
"There are really only two big patches of intact forest left on Earth -- the Amazon and the Congo -- and they shine out like eyes from the center of the map," said study leader Nick Haddad of North Carolina State University in a report published in Science Advances.
The remaining wooded areas on Earth are being fragmented by man and cut-up by roads. More tellingly, the NCSU researchers found that if someone were to be taken randomly into one of the world's many forests, there's a 70 percent chance of that person being within a half-mile of the forest edge.
In other words, this means no forest on Earth can be considered wilderness except for those in the Amazon and Congo. Researchers said the consequences of so many fragmented forests are "ruinous," according to a report in The New Yorker.
They noted fragmented habitats lose an average of half of their plant and animal species within 20 years, and that some continue to lose species for 30 years or more. More than half of all plant and land animal species in the world live in tropical forests.
"Once a forest disappears, the resulting area is more exposed and experiences greater extremes of temperature, humidity, and wind," said study co-author Douglas Levey.
There is a silver lining in this gloom since fragmentation often happens very slowly. As such, it becomes possible to reconnect forest "clumps" by planting linking trees.
"It's never too late to preserve what we already have," Levey said.
Deforestation, clearance or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use. It causes extinction, changes to climatic conditions, desertification, and displacement of populations as observed by current conditions and in the past through the fossil record.