People have shaped most of terrestrial nature for at least 12,000 years

Abstract

Archaeological and paleoecological evidence shows that by 10,000 BCE, all human societies employed varying degrees of ecologically transformative land use practices, including burning, hunting, species propagation, domestication, cultivation, and others that have left long-term legacies across the terrestrial biosphere. Yet, a lingering paradigm among natural scientists, conservationists, and policymakers is that human transformation of terrestrial nature is mostly recent and inherently destructive. Here, we use the most up-to-date, spatially explicit global reconstruction of historical human populations and land use to show that this paradigm is likely wrong. Even 12,000 y ago, nearly three quarters of Earth’s land was inhabited and therefore shaped by human societies, including more than 95% of temperate and 90% of tropical woodlands. Lands now characterized as “natural,” “intact,” and “wild” generally exhibit long histories of use, as do protected areas and Indigenous lands, and current global patterns of vertebrate species richness and key biodiversity areas are more strongly associated with past patterns of land use than with present ones in regional landscapes now characterized as natural. The current biodiversity crisis can seldom be explained by the loss of uninhabited wildlands, resulting instead from the appropriation, colonization, and intensifying use of the biodiverse cultural landscapes long shaped and sustained by prior societies. Recognizing this deep cultural connection with biodiversity will therefore be essential to resolve the crisis.

Conservation of Earth’s biodiversity is embedded in Indigenous fire stewardship

“…Recent global reviews of protected areas reveal that Indigenous-managed (owned, governed, titled, or unceded) lands have higher levels of biodiversity than parks and protected areas under conventional management ( 24 , 25 ). Much of this is attributed to long-term and widespread relationships with and dependence on fire, which has been applied as a tool for managing landscapes for millennia ( 7 , 8 , 18 , 26 ). Although IFS may seem counterintuitive to stabilize or increase biodiversity in dry biomes where fire naturally occurs, IFS can greatly decrease the severity of wildfires (both lightning and human ignitions) when they do occur by reducing the abundance of available fuels and increasing the fire resistance of vegetation ( 27 – 29 ) ( Fig.…”

“…Lastly, the search terms in this review likely do not adequately capture historical and paleo-ecological data streams (such as archaeology and palynology) as terms such as “biodiversity,” “Indigenous,” and “fire” are less commonly used and are often implicit in these research fields. These fields of research can provide important global context to our understanding of ancient socio-cultural, environmental, and climatic change ( 18 , 39 ).…”

“…Decades of warmer temperatures and greater instances of drought have lengthened wildfire seasons around the globe, and uncharacteristically severe wildfires have negatively impacted biodiversity in all of Earth’s biomes ( 4 , 17 ). Unfortunately, the displacement of Indigenous peoples and place-based societies that rely on and routinely practice fire stewardship has resulted in significant declines in biodiversity and the functional roles of people in shaping pyrodiverse systems ( 8 , 9 , 18 ).…”

Adaptive Heritage: Is This Creative Thinking or Abandoning Our Values?

“…Landscapes are not static. They have reached their current biophysical condition through landscape evolution, part of which has been influenced by humans [20]. There is also an evolution of societal views and values [21], and a causal interaction between human values and landscapes (i.e., the attributes to which we ascribe value guide our behavior, which in turn influences changes in the landscape [5,22]).…”

Symbiosis and the Anthropocene

“…How we develop the understanding and the tools to wisely, sustainably, and humbly do this for the benefit of all on Earth is the great challenge of the Anthropocene before us (cf. Ellis et al 2021).…”