Figures
Fig. 1. Three shared principles for area-based biodiversity conservation. (1) To protect Earth’s biodiversity, we must protect and restore native habitat in all biomes and ecoregions. Shown are Earth’s 14 biomes (Olson et al. 2001). (2) Protecting as much native habitat as possible is our best way to safeguard biodiversity, and requires protecting both smaller and larger patches. For instance, while in some tropical biomes forest may exist in large, continuous patches, other biomes have been reduced to highly fragmented habitat. Green circles represent habitat patches separated by anthropogenic land use in two adjacent biomes (lime and blue background); the fading, green area on the bottom-left corner of the inset represents a large expanse of wilderness. (3) Habitat patches must be functionally connected. Habitat connectivity can increase with stepping stone habitat (a), corridors (b), or by reducing distances between patches (i.e., increasing patch density in the landscape) (c).