0000000001327527
AUTHOR
Brendan Wintle
SIZE ISN'T EVERYTHING: THE IMPORTANCE OF SMALL HABITAT PATCHES WHEN PLANNING THE CONSERVATION OF SPECIES IN FRAGMENTED LANDSCAPES
Metapopulation theory and landscape ecology indicate that larger patches of habitat are more likely to support self-sustaining populations of more species. In spatial conservation planning, it makes sense that if all else is equal; one would prefer to conserve a large patch of habitat over a small patch. However, simplistic and selective application of these theories is having perverse impacts on the viability of rare and threatened species in fragmented landscapes. Preference toward conserving large patches and ambivalence toward protecting small patches is manifest in many land management policies and regulations. However, due to historical patterns of land-use and habitat loss, it is sel…
Rethinking standard biodiversity offset calculations: Combining standard offset metrics with more ecologically relevant measures to improve biodiversity persistence
Biodiversity offsetting has been increasingly used around the world to compensate for the rising environmental impacts caused by development[1]. There is considerable scepticism about the effectiveness of offsets to achieve ‘no net loss’, particularly due to the lack of consistent metrics for measuring biodiversity losses and gains[1]. Current habitat based metrics often fail to capture biodiversity values at development sites [2], resulting in offsets which rarely compensate effectively for what is lost. Here we aim to understand how commonly used offset metrics differ from the larger pool of biodiversity metrics in science, and to identify options for improvement. We reviewed 259 publicat…