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Jointly advancing infrastructure and biodiversity conservation

Infrastructure development and biodiversity conservation are often planned and executed in isolation. However, outcomes from these efforts are interlinked, with coordinated actions required to jointly address sustainability challenges. Natural infrastructure — encompassing a spectrum of natural to conventional solutions — is key to the infrastructure–biodiversity connection and should be brought into large-scale application.

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Fig. 1: A confluence in the framing of, and approaches to, infrastructure and conservation planning.

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Acknowledgements

This work was conducted as part of the Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN, https://n-ewn.org/). The use of products or trade names does not represent an endorsement of these products by either the authors or the N-EWN. Opinions expressed here are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the agencies they represent or the N-EWN. The article benefited from comments by S. Altman, D. Crane, D. Hernández-Abrams, L. Dietterich, J. Hallemeier, R. Jackson, A. McKay, M. Simmons, T. Simon, B. Suedel and B. Woodson.

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Correspondence to S. Kyle McKay.

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McKay, S.K., Wenger, S.J., van Rees, C.B. et al. Jointly advancing infrastructure and biodiversity conservation. Nat Rev Earth Environ 4, 675–677 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00484-z

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