A drone hovers above the treetops to capture the endless sweep of a seemingly pristine forest – a sylvan sea that’s home to creatures great and small. It’s the kind of scene that’s at the centre of BBC nature documentaries, but are large, contiguous conservation areas like this actually the best way to conserve biodiversity?
For decades, there has been an orthodoxy in conservation biology – large, contiguous tracts of land are better for biodiversity than multiple, smaller parcels that add up to the same size. But that assumption relies on logic, and not evidence.
“My research has shown that it is not actually true,” says Dr. Lenore Fahrig, a Chancellor’s Professor of Biology at Carleton University.