Targeted habitat restoration can reduce extinction rates in fragmented forests

Significance Most species extinctions after habitat loss are delayed. Thus, there are important, yet insufficiently appreciated, opportunities to conserve species through habitat restoration. Here, we assess the impact of targeted habitat restoration on how long tropical bird species might persist in two tropical biodiversity hotspots—the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. Persistence times could be increased up to 56-fold by regenerating forest among the largest and closest forest fragments at these two localities. Given the unusually large numbers of threatened and endemic species that occur in other biodiversity hotspots, opportunities to enhance species persistence through habitat restoration should be explored elsewhere.