diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index cdb0f83..903abed 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ Imports:
     stats,
     utils,
     raster,
-    rgdal
+    terra
 Authors@R: c(
     person("Samuel", "Bosch", email = "mail@samuelbosch.com", role = c("aut")),
     person("Lennert", "Tyberghein", email = "lennert.tyberghein@vliz.be", role = c("ctb")),
@@ -35,5 +35,5 @@ Suggests:
     rmarkdown,
     httr,
     httr2
-RoxygenNote: 7.2.0
+RoxygenNote: 7.2.3
 VignetteBuilder: knitr
diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index 3747841..7120296 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@ export(lonlatproj)
 export(pearson_correlation_matrix)
 export(plot_correlation)
 export(sdm_to_bo)
-import(rgdal)
 import(stats)
 import(utils)
 importFrom(raster,raster)
diff --git a/R/load.R b/R/load.R
index e3b8140..56c639d 100644
--- a/R/load.R
+++ b/R/load.R
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ load_layers <- function(layercodes, equalarea = FALSE, rasterstack = TRUE, datad
   if(max(counts) != NROW(layercodes)) {
     warning("Layers from different eras (current, future, paleo) are being loaded together")
   }
-  if(!rgdal::GDALis3ormore()){
+  if(gdal_is_lower_than_3()){
     warning("GDAL is lower than version 3. Consider updating GDAL to avoid errors.")
   }
   datadir <- get_datadir(datadir)
@@ -180,3 +180,13 @@ lonlatproj <- sp::CRS("+proj=longlat +datum=WGS84 +no_defs")
 #' using load_layers with equal_area = TRUE
 #' @export
 equalareaproj <- sp::CRS("+proj=cea +lon_0=0 +lat_ts=30 +x_0=0 +y_0=0 +datum=WGS84 +units=m +no_defs")
+
+#' Is gdal v3 or more?
+#' @noRd
+gdal_is_lower_than_3 <- function(){
+  vgdal <- terra::gdal()
+  vgdal <- strsplit(vgdal, ".", fixed = TRUE)[[1]][1]
+  vgdal <- as.numeric(vgdal)
+  is_less_than_3 <- vgdal < 3
+  is_less_than_3
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/R/sdmpredictors.R b/R/sdmpredictors.R
index 4f11e39..1e405ed 100644
--- a/R/sdmpredictors.R
+++ b/R/sdmpredictors.R
@@ -33,5 +33,5 @@
 #' @name sdmpredictors
 #'   
 #' @importFrom raster raster stack
-#' @import stats utils rgdal
+#' @import stats utils
 NULL
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test_load.R b/tests/testthat/test_load.R
index 0be5eae..fb3e076 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test_load.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test_load.R
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 library(sdmpredictors)
-library(raster)
+suppressWarnings({library(raster)})
 
 test_dir <- file.path(tempdir(), "sdmpredictors")
 options(sdmpredictors_datadir = test_dir)
@@ -58,7 +58,9 @@ test_that("load_layer equal area layer works", {
 })
 test_that("load_layer works with different datadir options", {
   normalize <- function(p) {
-    normalizePath(paste0(p,"/"), winslash = "/", mustWork = TRUE)
+    suppressWarnings({
+      normalizePath(paste0(p,"/"), winslash = "/", mustWork = TRUE)
+    })
   }
   rpath <- function(rs) {
     path <- gsub("/vsizip/", "", dirname(raster::raster(rs,1)@file@name), fixed = TRUE)
@@ -174,7 +176,7 @@ test_that("GDAL virtual file system works to read zipped raster files", {
   rs <- raster::raster(url)
   
   expect_equal(class(rs)[1], "RasterLayer")
-  expect_true(rgdal::GDALis3ormore())
+  expect_false(gdal_is_lower_than_3())
 })