Look, I’m not a lawyer, but the trick is to make the rules feel like a right, not a handcuff. Give the landowners a clear, simple incentive—tax breaks, a straight‑forward conservation easement that lets them keep the money in their pocket while the land stays out of the bulldozer’s line. Don’t pile on paperwork; let the locals own the plan, just make sure it’s tight enough that the habitat doesn’t get sliced into pieces. If the zoning can be a one‑page map with a few color‑coded zones, that keeps the bureaucracy from turning the forest into a bureaucratic maze. And always remember, the real “progress” is keeping the trees, streams, and wildlife there so the next folks don’t have to rebuild a forest from scratch.

Sounds good, but don’t make it a legal labyrinth. Keep the language tight, use a single paragraph that says, “no splitting a corridor, no cuts,” and make the tax credits hard to miss. Animals don’t care about loopholes, only about clear edges, so stick to a straight red line on the map and put the same line in the contract. That way the locals feel they own the land, the forest stays whole, and you avoid the whole bureaucracy‑black‑hole trap.