Sustaining tropical biodiversity in the long term requires more than just protection of remaining primary forests (L. Gibson et al. Nature 478, 378–381; 2011). It is essential to encourage land-use strategies that increase the potential conservation value of habitats modified by humans. Substantial tropical biodiversity can also thrive in such human-dominated ecosystems.

Luke Gibson and colleagues highlight the importance of disappearing forests by comparing biodiversity in tropical primary forests with corresponding human-modified habitats. But clinging to the ecological ideal excludes equally important comparisons to ecological dystopias. For example, when I re-analysed the data to include a 'degraded' reference state with poor biodiversity (see http://www.stanford.edu/~cdm/Pubs/SOM), it revealed that human-dominated ecosystems sustain at least a medium amount of biodiversity. This is substantial, considering that such ecosystems constitute roughly 85% of the tropics (E. C. Ellis et al. Global Ecol. Biogeogr. 19, 589–606; 2010).

Rather than championing conservation of primary forest over land-use strategies favouring conservation, we must develop a holistic conservation model that includes human-dominated ecosystems.