Agriculture and development transform forest ecosystems to human-modified landscapes. Decades of research in ecology have generated myriad concepts for the appropriate management of these landscapes. Yet, these concepts are often contradictory and apply at different spatial scales, making the design of biodiversity-friendly landscapes challenging. Here, we combine concepts with empirical support to design optimal landscape scenarios for forest-dwelling species. The supported concepts indicate that appropriately sized landscapes should contain ≥ 40% forest cover, although higher percentages are likely needed in the tropics. Forest cover should be configured with c. 10% in a very large forest patch, and the remaining 30% in many evenly dispersed smaller patches and semi-natural treed elements (e.g. vegetation corridors). Importantly, the patches should be embedded in a high-quality matrix. The proposed landscape scenarios represent an optimal compromise between delivery of goods and services to humans and preserving most forest wildlife, and can therefore guide forest preservation and restoration strategies.

Ecosystems largely depend, for both their functioning and their ecological integrity, on the ecological traits of the species that inhabit them. Non-human primates have a wide geographic distribution and play vital roles in ecosystem structure, function, and resilience. However, there is no comprehensive and updated compilation of information on ecological traits of all the world’s primate species to accurately assess such roles at a global scale. Here we present a database on some important ecological traits of the world’s primates (504 species), including home range size, locomotion type, diel activity, trophic guild, body mass, habitat type, current conservation status, population trend, and geographic realm. We compiled this information through a careful review of 1,216 studies published between 1941 and 2018, resulting in a comprehensive, easily accessible and user-friendly database. This database has broad applicability in primatological studies, and can potentially be used to address many research questions at all spatial scales, from local to global.

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Land‐use change threatens biodiversity in tropical landscapes, but its impact on rainforest regeneration remains poorly known. In fact, the landscape‐scale patterns driving the diversity of regenerating plants within forest fragments have been rarely explored, and we are uncertain whether such drivers vary across regions with different land‐use change patterns. We assessed the effect of landscape composition (forest cover and matrix openness) and configuration (forest patch density) on species diversity of sapling assemblages (trees ≥30 cm height and <1 cm diameter) in old‐growth forest fragments from three Mexican rainforest regions with different disturbance levels (n = 20 landscapes per region). We separately assessed old‐growth forest specialists (OGS) and forest generalist (FG) species to test the hypotheses that: (a) OGS species show recruitment limitation (‘loser’ species), and can therefore be negatively impacted by landscape changes, especially by forest loss and matrix openness in more deforested regions; and (b) FG species can regenerate and even proliferate in more disturbed landscapes (‘winner’ species). We recorded ~24,000 plants from 415 species. Landscape composition showed stronger effects than landscape configuration. The diversity of OGS species generally decreased in more deforested landscapes dominated by open matrices, and FG species followed the opposite response, especially in the regions with high‐to‐intermediate degree of disturbance. Overall, forest fragmentation (patch density) showed weak or no effects on species diversity, especially after controlling for forest cover effects (i.e. fragmentation per se). In contrast to the fragmentation threshold hypothesis, the effect of fragmentation was independent of the regional context. Moreover, FG species were affected by landscape attributes operating at larger scales than OGS species. Synthesis. Our findings support our hypotheses, and suggest that forest loss and matrix openness, not fragmentation per se, can cause the recruitment failure of tree assemblages in highly deforested rainforests. This can be related to source and dispersal limitation in more deforested landscapes with treeless matrices. Therefore, to promote the regenerative potential (resilience) of forest patches in human‐modified tropical landscapes, conservation programs should focus on preventing forest loss (even the smallest forest patches) and improving matrix quality with treed elements, particularly in highly deforested tropical regions.

Con la creciente pérdida y fragmentación de los ecosistemas naturales, entender cómo responden las especies a estos cambios nunca ha sido más urgente. Hoy existe consenso acerca del fuerte impacto negativo de la pérdida de hábitat sobre la biodiversidad. Sin embargo, el efecto de la fragmentación del hábitat ha sido muy debatido. En esta revisión, proponemos un esquema que evalúa las causas y consecuencias del debate. Sugerimos que es causado por el uso de diferentes definiciones y conceptualizaciones de la fragmentación (causas distales), las cuales promueven el uso de distintas metodologías de estudio (causas proximales). Algunos estudios consideran la fragmentación como un proceso inseparable de la pérdida de hábitat y de otras amenazas locales (p.ej. efectos de borde y aislamiento), por lo que miden sus efectos a escala de sitio, de parche o de paisaje, sin controlar necesariamente el efecto de la pérdida de hábitat. Otros consideran la fragmentación como un patrón que describe la configuración del hábitat en el paisaje, y cuyo efecto puede y debe ser evaluado independientemente del efecto de la cantidad de hábitat (i.e. fragmentación per se) usando el paisaje como unidad de análisis. Como consecuencia, los primeros usualmente concluyen que la fragmentación tiene efectos fuertes y negativos sobre la biodiversidad, mientras que los segundos concluyen que dichos efectos son generalmente débiles, y positivos cuando son significativos. Entender las causas y consecuencias de este debate es crítico para aplicar medidas de conservación más adecuadas.