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| | The Wilderness of the World: Thirty-seven Wilderness Areas |
 | | First of all, a wilderness area needs to be a distinct biogeographic unit, or a series of units (e.g., ecoregions) within a biome type that share certain biological features. |
 | | For wilderness areas, we are proposing the opposite, that to qualify as a wilderness area, a region would have to be 70% or more intact as determined by remaining natural vegetationmeaning that no more than 30% of the region could be destroyed or significantly degraded by human activities. |
 | | We also believe that it is critical that these areas still maintain intact faunal assemblages of large mammals and birds, especially large, wide-ranging predators (large cats, bears), large raptors like eagles, large herbivores, large frugivorous primates, and other key species that are the first to disappear in the face of human pressure. |
| www.press.uchicago.edu /Misc/Chicago/9686397698.html (1807 words) |
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