Working landscapes need at least 20% native habitat

GARIBALDI, LUCAS A; ODDI, FACUNDO J; MIGUEZ, FERNANDO ; BARTOMEUS, IGNASI; ORR, MICHAEL ; JOBBÁGY, ESTEBAN; KREMEN, CLAIRE; SCHULTE, LISA ; HUGES, ALICE ; BAGNATO, CAMILO; ABRAMSON, GUILLERMO; BRIDGEWATER, PETER; GOMEZ CARELLA, DULCE; DÍAZ, SANDRA; DICKS, LYNN; ELLIS, ERLE; GOLDENBERG, MATIAS G; HUAYLLA, CLAUDIA; KUPERMAN, MARCELO ; LOCKE, HARVEY ; MEHRABI, ZIA ; SANTIBAÑEZ, FERNANDA; CHAO-DONG, ZHU

Conservation Letters

Wiley

Año: 2020

International agreements aim to conserve 17% of Earth?s land area by 2020 but include no area-based conservation targets within the working landscapes that support human needs throughfarming, ranching and forestry. Through a review of country-level legislation, we found that just38% of countries have minimum area requirements for conserving native habitats within workinglandscapes. We argue for increasing native habitats to at least 20% of working landscape areawhere it is below this minimum. Such target has benefits for food security, nature?s contributions topeople, and the connectivity and effectiveness of protected area networks in biomes in whichprotected areas are under-represented. We also argue for maintaining native habitat at higherlevels where it currently exceeds the 20%inimum, and performed a literature review that showsthat even more than 50% native habitat restoration is needed in particular landscapes. The post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework is an opportune moment to include a minimum habitatrestoration target for working landscapes that contributes to, but does not compete with, initiativesfor expanding protected areas, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.