Intense human pressure is widespread across terrestrial vertebrate ranges
The United Nation's Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 calls for reducing species extinctions, as it is increasingly clear that human activities threaten to drive species to decline. Yet despite considerable scientific evidence pointing to the detrimental effects of interacting threats on biodiversity, many species lack information on their exposure to cumulative human pressures. Using the most comprehensive global dataset on cumulative human footprint, we assess the extent of intense human pressures across 20,529 terrestrial vertebrate species’ geographic ranges.