Protected areas are of paramount relevance to conserving wildlife and ecosystem contributions to people. Yet, their conservation success is increasingly threatened by human activities including habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and species overexploitation. Thus, understanding the underlying and proximate drivers of anthropogenic threats is urgently needed to improve protected areas’ effectiveness, especially in the biodiversity-rich tropics. We addressed this issue by analyzing expert-provided data on long-term biodiversity change (last three decades) over 14 biosphere reserves from the Mesoamerican Biodiversity Hotspot. Using multivariate analyses and structural equation modeling, we tested the influence of major socioeconomic drivers (demographic, economic, and political factors), spatial indicators of human activities (agriculture expansion and road extension), and forest landscape modifications (forest loss and isolation) as drivers of biodiversity change. We uncovered a significant proliferation of disturbance-tolerant guilds and the loss or decline of disturbance-sensitive guilds within reserves causing a “winner and loser” species replacement over time. Guild change was directly related to forest spatial changes promoted by the expansion of agriculture and roads within reserves. High human population density and low nonfarming occupation were identified as the main underlying drivers of biodiversity change. Our findings suggest that to mitigate anthropogenic threats to biodiversity within biosphere reserves, fostering human population well-being via sustainable, nonfarming livelihood opportunities around reserves is imperative.

Annual meetings of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) provide a window into emerging research priorities, conceptual shifts, and methodological advances in tropical biology and conservation. Here, we synthesize lessons and outcomes from the 61st ATBC Annual Meeting (ATBC 2025) held in Oaxaca, México, and situate them within the broader trajectory of ATBC conferences to identify continuities, emerging directions, and gaps. ATBC 2025 convened 1161 participants from 63 countries, providing a timely platform to examine how research in tropical biology and conservation is responding to accelerating socioecological change. Analyses of symposia, oral and poster presentations, and plenary sessions revealed three overarching messages. First, compound disturbances—such as interactions between land‐use change and climate extremes—are increasingly reshaping tropical ecosystems and require integrative research and management approaches. Second, effective conservation and restoration depend on equity‐centered frameworks that meaningfully engage Indigenous Peoples and local communities through collaborative governance and coproduced knowledge. Third, rapid methodological innovation—from microbiome studies to artificial intelligence and remote sensing—continues to expand analytical capacity, although its transformative potential depends upon socially grounded and place‐based contexts. The meeting also highlighted science–action linkages, exemplified by the “Declaration on the Social–Ecological Impacts of Agave Monocultures for Mezcal Production” and ATBC's carbon offset initiative developed with CORENCHI, a community‐led civil association conserving tropical cloud forests in Oaxaca. Although challenges remain, ATBC 2025 illustrated the evolving role of ATBC conferences as platforms for integrative, action‐oriented science to advance conservation and sustainability in the tropics.

Habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats to biodiversity, particularly in tropical agricultural landscapes, where natural forests persist as small and isolated patches. Identifying how human-managed habitats contribute to functional connectivity is essential to understanding species persistence in these landscapes. Agroforestry systems, particularly traditional home gardens (THG), support rural well-being by providing tangible products and enhancing landscape functional connectivity. This study evaluated whether THG facilitates bird movements between forest fragments in a mountainous region of Mexico. We recorded the arrival and departure directions of birds visiting THG and analyzed movement orientation using circular statistics. Then, we compared the directions observed in the sampling with hypothetical directions measured from a hypothetical route that birds may use, defined from the spatial arrangement of THG cover in the village, the surrounding forest fragments, and the location of the sampled THG. Our results show that most birds departed in the opposite direction from which they arrived, suggesting that THG act as biological stepping stones, forming corridors that enhance connectivity between fragmented habitats. This pattern was consistent when analyzing the complete assembly and across most trophic guilds, except for granivorous birds. Comparing observed arrival and departure directions with hypothetical directions shows that birds move through the THG along routes connecting the forest fragments surrounding the village. These findings highlight the potential of THG to enhance functional connectivity and support ecological flows in fragmented tropical landscapes. Thus, conserving and managing THG within broader landscape networks can safeguard biodiversity and ecological processes in human-modified environments.