How much forest does biodiversity need in cultivated landscapes?

Lacandonon Jungle in southeastern Mexico: The one hectare forest in the middle has tall trees that serve as nesting places for rare macaw parrots. Photo: Victor Arroyo-Rodriguez Research team with Göttingen participation develops concepts to promote biodiversity Forests, especially in the tropics, are home to the world's greatest biodiversity, but are threatened by increasing land use. An international research team with participation of the University of Göttingen has investigated how high the proportion of forest in cultivated landscapes must be in order to protect the greatest number of animal and plant species that depend on this habitat. The proportion of forest must be at least 40 percent: around ten percent in large protected areas and 30 percent scattered across the countryside. The fragments of forest should preferably be surrounded by a landscape with small-scale, structure-rich, managed land to reduce the probability of population extinction. The results have been published in the journal Ecology Letters. The researchers, led by Dr Victor Arroyo-Rodriguez at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, evaluated literature for the study and presented approaches for the design of cultivated landscapes that are suitable for the sustainable protection of forest flora and fauna, whether specialist or generalist species.