Planning Restoration of Connectivity and Design of Corridors for Biodiversity Conservation

Habitats have been undergoing significant changes due to environmental processes and human impact that lead into habitat fragmentation and connectivity loss. To improve quality habitats and maintain ecological connectivity, elements that improve the connectivity of habitats need to be identified. To meet this goal, finding optimal pathways locations plays a key role for designing corridors for biodiversity conservation. Conducted in the Castilla y León region of Spain, this paper aims to determine optimal pathways and to enhance the connectivity of protected areas. To this end, three different scenarios were developed including the Natura 2000 network and their surroundings (Natura 2000, Level 0, and Level 1). We used Restoration Planner (RP) available in GuidosToolbox to analyze the network and detect pairwise optimum restoration pathways between the five largest network objects. Our results demonstrate that connector density varies across the region for each scenario. There was also a large variability in the length of connectors. Connectors were found mainly distributed around the center and northwestern part of Castilla y León. This paper also suggests that proposed new restoration pathways should increase in the study area. Thus, the findings can be used effectively for extensive planning and interpretation in biodiversity conservation.