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People live in nature. However, substantial evidence confirms that, under the pressure of anthropogenic alteration, nature is being fragmented, imperiled and becoming less able to provide essential services. Biodiversity loss is the most significant signal of this depletion, and could profoundly impact the future of human beings and the rest of life on Earth.

Protected areas are key to biodiversity conservation. While the value of protected areas is generally undisputed, challenges remain. Many areas designated as protected were created for objectives other than biodiversity conservation, and those objectives can conflict with biodiversity conservation. Protected area legal status is, in many cases, impermanent. Protected areas are generally too small, isolated, and few to conserve biodiversity on their own, and thus there are calls for connected conservation areas between them, and for their integration into broader landscapes and seascapes [1]. There is a general consensus that the current global suite of protected areas is insufficient to protect biodiversity. Although there is no precise prescription for how much would be enough, systematic conservation planning studies have indicated that 25–75% of a region is required to capture key elements of biodiversity [2]. Studies that address range shifts and movement pathways in response to climate change reveal even more extensive area and connectivity requirements. These and other insights have contributed to recent calls for ‘half Earth’