Sparsely populated regions as a specific geographical environment

Abstract

The Amazon forests, the Northern artic regions, the Australian bush and Siberian plains all have very low demographic densities, but they are rarely studied as pertaining to the same global category. It appears, however, that when considering sparsely populated regions (SPR) globally they share not only demographical characteristics, but also a number of features in their economic, political, spatial and social configuration, and more importantly in visions of nature and the environment, which make them different from more densely populated areas. The point of this paper is to demonstrate that despite obvious ecological and climatic differences, SPR can be considered as a specific geographical category and in so doing we are able to reveal and explain aspects until now imperfectly framed under the ‘rural’ category which they are generally put into. This point is far from anecdotal, since contrary to common assumptions, SPR are still largely dominant today on Earth in terms of extension. Considering them as a unique category can therefore be an important step forward in cross-continental rural studies.