Abstract We studied conservation initiatives in Wallacea, a global biodiversity hotspot where numerous endemic plant and animal species are threatened by agricultural and industrial expansion. Seventy per cent of Wallacea’s 391 recognized Key Biodiversity Areas lie outside legally protected habitats. Our research explores biodiversity conservation options in six highly biodiverse landscapes where local farmers actively manage production systems subject to overlapping administrative jurisdictions and exposed to intensifying development pressures. For the past decade we have engaged with local communities in these landscapes to identify scenarios that could meet their development needs and also maintain the region’s biodiversity. Conservation management will need local institutions able to influence the behaviour of numerous local stakeholders. We conclude that there is a need to provide financial incentives to local people for conservation either through profitable nature-based enterprises adapted to local community skills or by providing conditional cash payments linked to conservation goals. Ecosystem boundaries do not align well with administrative jurisdictions and new institutional arrangements will be needed to meet the goals of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Boedhihartono et al. (2026) studied this question.