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Abstract Recent international agreements have strengthened and expanded commitments to protect and restore native habitats for biodiversity protection (“area‐based biodiversity conservation”). Nevertheless, biodiversity conservation is hindered because how such commitments should be implemented has been strongly debated, which can lead to suboptimal habitat protection decisions. We argue that, despite the debates, there are three essential principles for area‐based biodiversity conservation. These principles are related to habitat geographic coverage, amount, and connectivity. They emerge from evidence that, while large areas of nature are important and must be protected, conservation or restoration of multiple small habitat patches is also critical for global conservation, particularly in regions with high land use. We contend that the many area‐based conservation initiatives expected in the coming decades should follow the principles we identify, regardless of ongoing debates. Considering the importance of biodiversity for maintenance of ecosystem services, we suggest that this would bring widespread societal benefits.
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This content will become publicly available on May 31, 2026
Strategically timing land protection decisions to enhance biodiversity benefits
Abstract Choices conservation organizations make when designing and implementing protected area strategies affect the timing of land protection. Well‐timed habitat protection will have a greater impact on biodiversity outcomes; yet, decisions affecting the timing of protection have received much less attention than other aspects of protected area design. We reviewed evidence on the timing of protected area establishment and on temporal variation in factors influencing the ecological effectiveness and cost‐effectiveness of establishing protected areas. Protected area coverage often increases in episodic bursts rather than at some uniform rate. Moreover, temporal variation in biodiversity indicators, habitat conversion threats, and the cost of protecting land suggests that the conservation benefit of protecting land at some times will be greater than that at others. Conservation organizations increase their flexibility to choose when they protect land by using flexibility‐creating mechanisms, such as loans, multiyear budgeting, and endowment management. Models and theory suggest how this can be done to have the largest positive impact for conservation by exploiting long‐ and short‐term variation in factors that affect the rate of biodiversity return on protected area investments.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2009103
- PAR ID:
- 10644793
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Conservation Biology
- ISSN:
- 0888-8892
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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