Systematic Conservation Planning for Private Land Can No Longer Overlook People

Abstract

Expanding conservation on private land is essential for many countries to achieve global biodiversity conservation and restoration targets. Planning in these socially and environmentally diverse landscapes requires approaches that are fit for purpose that account for both human and ecological values. Although systematic conservation planning offers a structured framework to address human-nature interdependencies, its applicability to private land conservation is not well understood. We reviewed 66 peer-reviewed systematic conservation planning studies across 44 countries to evaluate how people, including landholders and other stakeholders, are incorporated into private land conservation planning. Although landholders and other stakeholders are central to private land conservation outcomes, 21% of studies did not consider these perspectives at all, and only 29% engaged these groups directly through stakeholder workshops, participatory planning, or landholder surveys. Most studies (73%) relied on indirect socio-economic proxies to represent social values, which may miss key insights into feasibility and long-term success. We apply the results of the review to propose an enhanced systematic conservation planning framework tailored to private land conservation contexts. We argue that when landholders’ and other stakeholders’ perspectives are integrated into the planning process, private land conservation efforts are more likely to be beneficial for both people and nature.