Moving away from paper corridors in southeast Asia.

Abstract

[Extract] Among biodiversity conservation solutions, corridors often receive much public and political support. Nonbiologists can easily connect with the concept (Van Der Windt & Swart 2008), and corridors have the potential to reach a middle ground between land development and biodiversity conservation. However, this political convenience can be taken too far, especially given that corridors need substantial research and planning to be successful. At best, a poorly implemented corridor is a waste of public funds; at worst, it is a consolation measure that legitimizes habitat destruction. Corridors may even accelerate the decline of rare native species by allowing invasive species to spread easily across the landscape (Beier et al. 2008). Recently, attention has been directed toward distilling the best practices in designing linkages (Beier et al. 2008; Lacher & Wilkerson 2013) to help practitioners maximize ecological connectivity while avoiding common pitfalls.