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Connecting science, policy, and implementation for landscape‐scale habitat connectivity
Author(s) -
Brodie Jedediah F.,
Paxton Midori,
Nagulendran Kangayatkarasu,
Balamurugan G.,
Clements Gopalasamy Reuben,
Reynolds Glen,
Jain Anuj,
Hon Jason
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
conservation biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.2
H-Index - 222
eISSN - 1523-1739
pISSN - 0888-8892
DOI - 10.1111/cobi.12667
Subject(s) - habitat , geography , wildlife corridor , metacommunity , ecosystem services , environmental resource management , scale (ratio) , biodiversity , business , environmental planning , ecology , ecosystem , biological dispersal , environmental science , cartography , population , demography , sociology , biology
We examined the links between the science and policy of habitat corridors to better understand how corridors can be implemented effectively. As a case study, we focused on a suite of landscape‐scale connectivity plans in tropical and subtropical Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, and Bhutan). The process of corridor designation may be more efficient if the scientific determination of optimal corridor locations and arrangement is synchronized in time with political buy‐in and establishment of policies to create corridors. Land tenure and the intactness of existing habitat in the region are also important to consider because optimal connectivity strategies may be very different if there are few, versus many, political jurisdictions (including commercial and traditional land tenures) and intact versus degraded habitat between patches. Novel financing mechanisms for corridors include bed taxes, payments for ecosystem services, and strategic forest certifications. Gaps in knowledge of effective corridor design include an understanding of how corridors, particularly those managed by local communities, can be protected from degradation and unsustainable hunting. There is a critical need for quantitative, data‐driven models that can be used to prioritize potential corridors or multicorridor networks based on their relative contributions to long‐term metacommunity persistence.