Moving beyond simplistic representations of land use in conservation

Abstract

AbstractLand use is both a major cause of the biodiversity crises and a potential solution to it. Decisions about land use are made in complex social–ecological systems, yet conservation research, policy, and practice often neglect the diverse and dynamic nature of land use. A deeper integration of land system science and conservation science provides major opportunities in this context, through a transfer of concepts, data, and methodologies. Specifically, a closer exchange between land‐use data developers and users will enable common terminology and better data use, allowing to move beyond coarse land‐cover representations of land use. Similarly, archetyping and regionalization approaches can help to embrace, rather than oversimplify, the diversity of land‐use actors and practices. Finally, systematically linking land‐use actors to portfolios of pressures on biodiversity, beyond their direct impact on habitat, can better represent and map co‐occurring and interacting threats. Together, this will enable conservation policymakers and planners to recognize the often‐complex and wicked nature of conservation challenges related to land, allowing for more context‐specific conservation policymaking and planning, and more targeted conservation interventions.