Human-wildlife overlap will increase drastically by 2070

The overlap between humans and wildlife will increase on more than 50% of land globally by 2070. In new research published in the journal Science Advances, scientists created an index that included predictions of where humans will occupy land. They compared these projections to the distributions of more than 22,000 vertebrate species. The research revealed that human-wildlife overlap will increase in most lands. But it also found that human-wildlife overlap will decrease in 12% of lands—especially in agricultural and forested areas. Species richness is also predicted to decrease in many cases, the research found. “We care a lot about which areas can support populations of endangered species, like tigers, and how human communities interact with these species,” said Neil Carter, an author of the study and associate professor of environment and sustainability at the University of Michigan, in a press release. “In some places it’s going to be really hard to do everything at once: to grow crops and have urban areas and protect these species and their habitats. But if we can start planning now, we have a lot of tools to help us promote sustainable coexistence.”

Read more at University of Michigan News.