More than half the world’s forests fragmented in 20 years — but protection works: Study

• Large intact forests and connected landscapes support biodiversity and ecosystem processes.
• Globally, more than half of the world’s forests became more fragmented between 2000 and 2020, according to a new Science study, with the highest rates in the tropics.
• The study used new measures of fragmentation that more closely align with ecological functions and is higher than previous estimates of fragmentation rates.
• The study also finds that in the tropical forests, protected areas experienced much lower rates of fragmentation than similar unprotected forests.

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