The Biodiversity Institute’s research theme on biodiversity conservation beyond protected areas aims to enhance our understanding of the increasing pressures on biodiversity and the conservation practices which will need to take place beyond the reserves to enable the persistence of biodiversity within these landscapes.

Regions outside of reserves account for 88% of the earth’s terrestrial surface and 98% of marine areas. The conservation of biodiversity outside of protected areas faces additional challenges; the region covers large areas with undefined boundaries, multiple use landscapes where human activities directly and indirectly come in conflict with wild nature. The purpose of this symposium is to bring together the latest science and evidence for conserving biodiversity beyond protected areas. Topics will include modelling complexity, persistence of biodiversity, restoration of ecological processes to degraded lands, marine conservation, cultural landscapes, governance, and business and community connections in conservation.