Conservation from the inside-out: Winning space and a place for wildlife in working landscapes

Protected areas fall far short of securing the space needed to sustain biodiversity
and ecosystem function at a global scale and in the face of climate change.

The prospects of conserving biodiversity in working landscapes help buffer the insularization effects of protected areas and hold great potential for biodiversity conservation on a landscape scale but depend on finding adequate space and a meaningful place in the lives of rural land users.

Using a case study in southern Kenya, we show that the conservation of large open landscapes, biodiversity and the coexistence between wildlife and livestock can be achieved indirectly by reinforcing pastoral practices that depend on open space, mobility, social networks and institutional arrangements governing common-pool resources.