Data from: Valuable habitat and low deforestation can reduce biodiversity gains from development rights markets

1. Illegal private land deforestation threatens global biodiversity, even in areas with native habitat requirements stipulated by law. Compliance can be improved by allowing landholders to meet legal reserve requirements by buying and selling the rights to have deforested land through a Tradeable Development Rights system (TDR). While this policy mechanism may prevent native habitat area loss, the spatial pattern of reserved areas will shift, creating novel landscape patterns. The resulting altered fragmentation and connectivity of habitat will impact biodiversity. TDR may also allow landholders to earn rent on land they never intended on converting, resulting in additional deforestation elsewhere and net habitat loss.
2. We construct a simulation model to explore the potential implications for biodiversity when development rights can be traded, compared with the landscape resulting from enforced individual compliance with deforestation laws.
3. We find that where future deforestation is very likely, a TDR market can provide better outcomes for both biodiversity and agriculture, resulting in more connected habitat networks with larger fragments and fewer edge effects. However, the TDR market can be harmful if future deforestation is unlikely, or if one habitat type is tightly spatially correlated with high economic returns from agriculture.
4. Policy implications. Allowing landholders to buy and sell the rights to keep more cleared land than legally stipulated will result in transformed multi-use landscapes. Losses of native habitat in some areas will be offset in others. We conclude that trading forest development rights has the potential to improve habitat configurations, but that careful consideration should be given to current species distributions and likely future deforestation scenarios.

1. 非法私有土地森林砍伐正威胁全球生物多样性，即便在法律明确规定原生栖息地保护要求的区域亦不例外。通过可交易开发权制度（Tradeable Development Rights system，TDR），允许土地所有者通过买卖砍伐土地的权利以满足法定保护储备要求，可提升合规率。尽管该政策机制可遏制原生栖息地面积流失，但保护区的空间格局将发生改变，形成全新的景观格局。由此引发的栖息地破碎化与连通性变化将对生物多样性产生影响。此外，可交易开发权制度还可能让土地所有者从原本无意转换用途的土地中获取租金收益，进而导致其他地区额外出现森林砍伐，最终造成栖息地净损失。
2. 相较于强制要求土地所有者个体遵守森林砍伐法律所形成的景观格局，我们构建了模拟模型，以探究开发权可交易情境下对生物多样性的潜在影响。
3. 研究发现，在未来森林砍伐风险极高的场景下，可交易开发权市场能为生物多样性与农业发展带来更优结果，形成连通性更强的栖息地网络，拥有更大的栖息地斑块以及更少的边缘效应。但如果未来森林砍伐可能性较低，或是某类栖息地类型与高农业经济回报在空间上紧密相关，该市场反而可能产生不利影响。
4. 政策启示。允许土地所有者买卖超出法定限额的保留砍伐土地权利，将催生转型后的多用途景观。部分区域的原生栖息地流失将在其他区域得到抵消。我们认为，交易森林开发权具备优化栖息地配置的潜力，但需审慎考量当前物种分布与未来可能发生的森林砍伐情景。