To conserve biodiversity, we must conserve the wider environment

Safeguarding a global network of key biodiversity areas (including Important Bird Areas) will do much to protect biodiversity, but we must also attend to the wider fabric of nature that surrounds these sites. Key sites need to be linked and buffered to maintain a set of dynamic ecological processes, such as migration and dispersal. Coherently linking natural areas will be particularly important in light of climate change, enabling species’ ranges to more readily respond to shifting climatic zones (). In addition, many species, whether declining or not, have populations that are simply too spread out or nomadic to be conserved adequately by a fixed system of sites that covers only a small part of their range ().

• A landscape approach to conservation can help tackle climate change
• Broad-scale conservation is needed alongside site-scale approaches to conserve threatened birds

Practical solutions for widespread threats

Solutions for widespread threats include broad-scale approaches to maintaining or restoring the biodiversity value of transformed habitats (, , ) and connecting networks of key biodiversity areas within degraded or intensively used landscapes (). There are also practical ways of addressing specific issues such as hunting (, ) and powerlines ().

• Conservation for birds and other biodiversity in Asia: a guide for governments and civil society
• Reforming policy for both birds and agriculture in Europe
• Intensive habitat management has led to a spectacular increase in Kirtland's Warbler
• For birds and people in the Jordan Valley: a landscape approach
• Towards sustainable hunting in the Middle East
• Hunting ban reversed decline of White-headed Duck in Spain
• Safer powerlines for Hungary's birds