Objective  Biodiversity is an important ecological basis of rural landscape, and it plays an important role in providing vital ecological services in rural natural landscape, productive landscape and rural settlement landscape. With the intensification of human activities, rural biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented speed. However, there is little concern about the connotation, characteristics and maintenance mechanism of rural biodiversity. The changing trend of rural biodiversity under the influence of global change is not completely clear, and there is a lack of protection strategy, design technology and restoration practice for rural biodiversity in response to environmental change. To better protect rural biodiversity, it is urgent to carry out in-depth research.

Methods  This research adopts a comprehensive research method based on literature review and theoretical discussion, aiming to, in combination with relevant experience accumulated through intensive rural field investigations and case studies, put forward new academic views and construct conservation strategies for rural biodiversity.

Results  1) Rural biodiversity reflects the diversity of the ecological complexes composed of diverse biological species and their habitats in rural areas, including species diversity, genetic diversity and habitat diversity. 2) Rural biodiversity has obvious characteristics in genetic diversity, species diversity, habitat diversity and ecosystem diversity. 3) In the context of global change, rural areas are under constant natural and artificial disturbances, leading to the continuous decline of rural biodiversity, especially the agricultural biodiversity, which has become the focus of global biodiversity decline. The impact factors include land use intensification and simplification, habitat fragmentation and loss, heavy use of pesticides and fertilizers, agricultural and forestry management policies, as well as global climate change. 4) The natural mechanism of rural biodiversity maintenance includes abiotic and biotic regulation. Abiotic regulation includes climate regulation and spatial heterogeneity regulation. The regulatory mechanisms of biotic regulation include pollination, mutualism, small-scale multispecies synergy, etc. 5) Thousands of years of farming civilization has formed a way of production and life that coexists with nature and is conducive to the conservation of biodiversity. The coordinated regulation mechanism between human and nature plays an important role in maintaining the rural biodiversity, which includes the rural “farmland-woodland-grassland-wetland” multi-factor coupling and multi-habitat coexistence maintenance mechanism, the rural agriculture-forestry-husbandry-fishery symbiosis maintenance mechanism, the rural fringe habitat maintenance mechanism, the rural “production-living-ecological” spaces coexistence maintenance mechanism, the rural ecological wisdom maintenance mechanism, and the rural customs and religious beliefs maintenance mechanism.

Conclusion  1) In combination with the characteristics, changes and maintenance mechanism of rural biodiversity, this research puts forward a biodiversity-friendly rural landscape planning and design (BFRLPD) framework, which emphasizes that the conservation and promotion of biodiversity can help optimize the pattern of rural landscape, improve the ecological quality of landscape, satisfy the needs of rural living environment, and achieve efficient and high-quality agriculture, forestry, husbandry and fishery production. However, the BFRLPD framework should be scientifically applied according to local conditions and the background conditions of biodiversity and economic development in different regions. 2) Agriculture serves as the principal part of the countryside, which entails the balance and coordination between the high yield of agriculture and the conservation of biodiversity. Based on rural biodiversity conservation, a biodiversity-friendly three-zone mode of rural agriculture should be established, that is, high-yield agriculture, traditional agriculture and rural semi-natural habitat should be rationally planned in rural functional zoning. 3) Traditional villages have close biological and cultural links and contain rich biological and cultural diversity. It is important to inherit rural ecological wisdom while innovating the symbiotic rural industrial system. 4) For rural target species, a rural habitat network with diverse habitat types and good ecological connectivity should be constructed to promote the coexistence of these target species. 5) Small and micro habitats beneficial to native species should be protected and integrated into the rural habitat network for overall conservation. 6) A rural living environment model featuring the organic integration of “production-living-ecological” spaces should be established. 7) The results of the case study of Yinping Village in Ansheng Town, Liangping District, Chongqing reflect that the comprehensive revitalization of rural ecology, economy and culture can be realized based on the conservation goal of rural biodiversity. In future researches, it is necessary to further understand the evolution trend and driving mechanism of rural biodiversity under the background of global change, and further elucidate the formation, maintenance and regulatory mechanisms of rural biodiversity. In particular, the following three aspects should be focused on. 1) Based on the detailed investigation of rural biodiversity, identify rural biodiversity hotspots and comprehensively conserve rural biodiversity. 2) Study the coupling relationship and interaction mechanism between rural biodiversity and carbon sink function, and explore the biodiversity-friendly technology and model for improving the carbon sink function of rural ecosystem. 3) Closely integrate the conservation and utilization of rural biodiversity with the revitalization of rural ecology, and explore the collaborative path and value realization mechanism of biodiversity conservation and rural green development.