Working landscape

[1] Recently, these have become the focus of efforts to conserve biodiversity,[2] as these now cover more than 80% of Earth's land,[3] and therefore offer increasing opportunities for conservation and restoration.

Though some parts of these landscapes may be used so intensively that they may be unable to sustain native species, working landscapes generally also include significant areas of habitats suitable for native species within their diverse and multifunctional mosaics of intensively used, fallow, and regenerating areas.

Conventional protected areas can offer high quality habitats with strong protections for native species, but their total global extent will always be limited.

As landscapes without human inhabitation and use are already rare and only getting rarer, conservation in working landscapes has become increasingly critical to the future of biodiversity.

Satellite mapping has been increasingly deployed to monitor how human activities modify working landscapes over time across extensive regions.