Community action on biodiversity

A wildlife garden (or habitat garden or backyard restoration) is an environment created with the purpose to serve as a sustainable haven for surrounding wildlife. Wildlife gardens contain a variety of habitats that cater to native and local plants, birds, amphibians, reptiles, insects, mammals and so on, and are meant to sustain locally native flora and fauna. Other names this type of gardening goes by can vary, prominent ones being habitat, ecology, and conservation gardening.

Both public and private gardens can be specifically transformed to attract the native wildlife, and in doing so, provide a natural array of support through available shelter and sustenance. This method of gardening can be a form of restoration in private gardens as much as those in public, as they contribute to connectivity due to the variability of their scattered locations, as well as an increased habitat availability.

Establishing a garden that emulates the environment before the residence was built and/or renders the garden similar to intact wild areas nearby (rewilding) will allow natural systems to interact and establish an equilibrium, ultimately minimizing the need for gardener maintenance and intervention. Wildlife gardens can also play an essential role in biological pest control, and also promote biodiversity, native plantings, and generally benefit the wider environment. Some environmental benefits include the reduction in pest populations through the natural mechanism of biological pest control, by helping reduce the need for pesticides. Habitat gardens also provide the environment an ecosystem service by recharging aquifers by intercepting rainfall.

A wildlife corridor, also known as a habitat corridor or green corridor, is an area that connects wildlife populations that have been separated by human activities or structures such as industrialization, expansion of agriculture, urbanization, road infrastructure, land clearings, and other development. Corridors mitigate the impacts of habitat fragmentation, meaning the division of habitat areas and restriction of movement, which has been caused by rapid urbanization and transport network expansion.

Habitat fragmentation from human development poses a significant threat to biodiversity, and wildlife corridors help to reduce the harmful effects of fragmentation and habitat degradation. By enabling the movement of individuals and populations, wildlife corridors help to prevent the negative effects of inbreeding and reduced genetic diversity that occur in isolated populations. Wildlife corridors also have effects on plant populations by increasing pollen and seed dispersal through animal movement between isolated habitat patches.

Additionally, corridors can support wildlife population resilience in the context of climate change adaptation, by connecting areas of warmer habitat to cooler habitat. Human settlements by corridors can allow for human-wildlife conflicts to increase, which requires mitigation measures.

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. As of 2021, it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the U.S.

Founded in 1951, the Nature Conservancy has over one million members globally (as of 2021), and has protected more than 119 million acres (48 million ha) of land in its history. As of 2014, it is the largest environmental nonprofit organization by assets and revenue in the Americas.

At the 9th World Wilderness Congress in Mérida, Mexico, WILD, with the collaboration of a spectrum of international organizations, governments and individuals, introduced Nature Needs Half, which aspires that humans give up use of half of land and water on Earth, in order to support wilderness. Marine biologist Sylvia Earle and Jane Goodall have endorsed Nature Needs Half, with Earle's only criticism being that she "hoped that half would be enough". Since its inception, WILD has begun collecting and conducting case studies of places around the world that have, or are on track to achieve, at least half protection.

Biodiversity in agriculture is the measure of biodiversity found on agricultural land. Biodiversity is the total diversity of species present in an area at all levels of biological organization. It is characterized by heterogeneous habitats that support the diverse ecological structure. In agricultural areas, biodiversity decreases as varying landscapes are lost and native plants are replaced with cultivated crops. Increasing biodiversity in agriculture can increase the sustainability of farms through the restoration of ecosystem services that aid in regulating agricultural lands. Biodiversity in agriculture can be increased through the process of agroecological restoration, as farm biodiversity is an aspect of agroecology.

Biodiversity is the measure of biotic and abiotic diversity in an ecosystem, described by heterogeneity. The loss of biodiversity in agriculture has been an increasing issue since the global increase of food demands and success of popular crops. This loss of heterogeneity declines species biodiversity on agricultural lands. Biodiversity in agriculture is essential in providing ecosystem services, which conserves biodiversity while providing agricultural services.

Biodiversity is the variability of life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels, for example, genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distributed evenly on Earth—it is greater in the tropics as a result of the warm climate and high primary productivity in the region near the equator. Tropical forest ecosystems cover less than one-fifth of Earth's terrestrial area and contain about 50% of the world's species. There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity for both marine and terrestrial taxa.