Land managers’ willingness-to-sell defines conservation opportunity for protected area expansion

Knight, Andrew T.; Grantham, Hedley S.; Smith, Robert J.; McGregor, Gillian; Possingham, Hugh P.; Cowling, Richard M.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2011.07.013

Cited by 85 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…One well-recognized idea is that cost can be determined either monetarily or non-monetarily (Naidoo & Iwamura, 2007). Monetary cost can be estimated using the current price of land or available opportunities, such as agricultural, forestry projects, auction cost of species, or land managers' willingness to sell (Knight et al, 2011;Naidoo & Adamowicz, 2006;Smith et al, 2008), which act as a substitute for actual spending on conservation. Obviously, monetary cost simulation is preferred over the non-monetary method because it enables decision-makers to prepare financial reports and demonstrate budgetary control over the reconstruction of the conservation network.…”

Section: Limitations and Further Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determination of priority nature conservation areas and human disturbances in the Yangtze River Basin, China

Zhang

Ouyang

et al. 2014

Journal for Nature Conservation

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a b s t r a c tBecause of limitation of manpower, funding, and land available in conservation, the problem of how to select essential regions to establish protection systems for biodiversity maintenance has been widely discussed. In an effort to address the problem, this study has aimed to select a set of priority areas and to determine their priority order by quantifying human disturbances for each area in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB). This basin covers 2.143 million km 2 , or more than 20% of China's territory. The habitats of 627 indicator species were predicted as a proxy for biodiversity. A conservation planning tool, MARXAN, was used to determine the optimal set of planning units, and three different target scenarios were generated. In addition, under the assumption that if two areas have equal value for conservation, the one suffering more severe disturbance needs more urgent protection than the other, priority ranking analysis was carried out using a 6-12-1 BP artificial neural network. Then hierarchical cluster analysis was applied to the classifications of human disturbances to formulate more detailed conservation strategies. By integrating the degree of irreplaceability of each unit, expert experience, and mountain boundaries, 17 biodiversity priority areas containing 33,200 units over an area of 0.83 million km 2 were defined. These areas also protected 56% of 32 types of rare forest ecosystem and 76.4% of six types of rare grassland ecosystem on average. According to the evaluation of human impact, a priority order and five types of human disturbance areas were generated. Some protection gaps were also identified, such as the northern part of the Wuyi Mountains. Moreover, the determination of priority nature conservation areas on a large scale can be used to influence the building of a well-connected protection network in each individual area, so that effective genetic communication can occur between species or groups of species. Conservation decisions focusing on the dominant impact factors that are threatening biodiversity sustainability are required as well.

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Section: Limitations and Further Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determination of priority nature conservation areas and human disturbances in the Yangtze River Basin, China

Zhang

Ouyang

et al. 2014

Journal for Nature Conservation

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“…To design efficient PES schemes, we need to understand the enablers and challenges for providers to enter into potential contracts (Michael 2003, Knight et al 2011, Raymond and Brown 2011. Efficient schemes ensure that compensation for upstream landholders is at least equal to the opportunity costs of their land use.…”

Section: Opportunity Cost Heterogeneity: Implications For Payment Formentioning

confidence: 99%

Flow and rent-based opportunity costs of water ecosystem service provision in a complex farming system

Rendón¹,

Dallimer²,

Paavola³

2016

E&S

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rent-based opportunity costs of water ecosystem service provision in a complex farming system. Ecology and Society 21 (4) ABSTRACT. Unsustainable land uses present many challenges for securing ecosystem service provision. It is also difficult to estimate the cost of a transition to more sustainable land-management practices for individual landholders. The main cost to landholders is the opportunity costs, the income foregone when changing land use for continued or enhanced ecosystem service provision. Thus accurate estimation of opportunity costs and understanding their distribution are crucial starting points for determining the economic viability and design of any payment for ecosystem services (PES) scheme. We compare two opportunity cost approaches and examine the distribution of these costs for improving drinking water quality in a complex farming system in a Honduran forest catchment. Data for both approaches was collected through a survey applied to upstream catchment landholders. Our results indicate that the direct flow approach and the proxy rent approach provide comparable and consistent opportunity cost estimates. The mean net flow return ha -1 was US$1410, but this estimate was skewed, mainly by exceptionally high coffee returns and negative returns of land uses making a loss. This estimate would imply spending over US$2 million per annum for water conservation, but a revised estimate comes to US$257,057 per annum. Opportunity costs were found to vary according to differences in land use and landholder characteristics. High value cash crops upholding the local economy, such as coffee, entail much higher opportunity costs than for example cattle grazing. These results suggest that discriminate PES payments, that vary according to opportunity costs and thus discriminate between land uses and landholders, are essential. Water quality at our case study site could be managed sustainably by a scheme focusing on highimpact land uses with lower opportunity costs and closer to water sources.

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“…Despite the large increase in number of plans [13] and resources spent on planning (a systematic conservation plan can cost millions of dollars and multiple years to develop [9]), the impact of this discipline on the effectiveness of spatial conservation initiatives is hypothesised but has not been rigorously tested. Preliminary analyses suggest the process of planning may sometimes be more influential than the plan itself [16,29] and that balancing a systematic science-based approach with the needs and aspirations of local people is essential [30,31]. Due to a lack of clear protocols for undertaking evaluations of conservation plans [32], there is no definitive review as to whether the technique has resulted in improved biodiversity conservation outcomes when compared with ad hoc decisions about the prioritisation of conservation actions.…”

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confidence: 99%

What is the extent and distribution of evidence on effectiveness of systematic conservation planning around the globe? A systematic map protocol

et al. 2016

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Background Systematic conservation planning involves the prioritisation of conservation actions to optimise biodiversity conservation outcomes whilst considering implementation challenges such as minimising costs. Thousands of systematic conservation plans have been developed around the globe (a popular software package, ‘Marxan’, has over 4200 active users from more than 180 countries). However, the effects of systematic approaches on conservation actions and outcomes are not generally known, nor are the factors which distinguish effective from ineffective plans. Previous reviews of conservation planning outcomes have been limited in scope and to narrow time intervals, and have revealed very few formal evaluations of plans. Given systematic approaches are widely perceived to offer the best chance to rapidly and efficiently achieve biodiversity protection targets, a thorough, up-to-date synthesis of the evidence is required. Methods This protocol outlines the methodology for a systematic mapping exercise to identify retrospective studies measuring the effects of systematic conservation planning on biodiversity conservation at regional, national and subnational scales. Our primary research question is: what is the extent and distribution of evidence on the conservation outcomes of systematic conservation planning? Outcomes will be categorised according to types of capital: natural, financial, social, human and institutional, given the range of potential direct and indirect effects of systematic conservation planning on conservation outcomes. A comprehensive and repeatable search strategy will be undertaken, utilising a wide range of sources including grey literature sources and targeted searches of organisational websites and databases. Sources will be restricted to English language publications between 1983 and 2016. The resultant studies will be screened using standardised inclusion and exclusion criteria and data from included studies will be categorised according to a standardised data extraction form. Information about the study design of relevant articles will be recorded to determine study robustness. A searchable database of studies will be made publicly accessible and available for updating in future. The results will be published in this journal and also presented as an interactive online resource to aid conservation planners in identifying impacts and outcomes of conservation plans.

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Land managers’ willingness-to-sell defines conservation opportunity for protected area expansion

Cited by 85 publications

References 49 publications

Determination of priority nature conservation areas and human disturbances in the Yangtze River Basin, China

Determination of priority nature conservation areas and human disturbances in the Yangtze River Basin, China

Flow and rent-based opportunity costs of water ecosystem service provision in a complex farming system

What is the extent and distribution of evidence on effectiveness of systematic conservation planning around the globe? A systematic map protocol

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