Priority‐Setting Tool Applied to Canada's Landbirds Based on Concern and Responsibility for Species

Abstract

As a contribution to Partners in Flight–Canada, the Canadian Wildlife Service developed a ranking system to help set priorities for landbird species. Two complementary species lists were generated: one with scores for “concern” representing vulnerability and population trend, and one for “responsibility” for regionally characteristic fauna. The concern score gave equal weight to vulnerability, a composite score based on abundance and breadth of range, and population trend, because its purpose was to give early warning of potential problems. Responsibility scores were scale‐free and were assigned for the season in which the species is most abundant. Other systems for identifying species of concern may be more appropriate for other jurisdictions or organisms, but the responsibility ranking is widely applicable. This system is a coarse filter that generates preliminary ranks; additional information should be considered in deciding how to allocate scarce resources for conservation. Unrefined results are nonetheless useful for a variety of purposes, as illustrated by the scores for Canadian landbirds. About 25% of Canada's high‐responsibility species are also of high concern. These high‐concern species are not associated with specific habitats or migration patterns. Conservation of species ranking high on concern and responsibility merits cooperation with the United States and Mexico in particular. The scores identified improved monitoring as a priority conservation activity for Canada.

Abundance of red-listed species in infrastructure habitats – ”responsibility species” as a priority-setting tool for transportation agencies´ conservation action

“…Dunn et al 1999, Schmeller et al 2008) as a priority-setting tool for the transportation agency´s conservation action. A responsibility species is broadly defined as a species for which a large proportion of its entire range or population occurs within the geographic area of an administrative entity (a country, a regional authority etc.).…”

Gap Analysis and selection of reserves for the threatened flora of eastern Andalusia, a hot spot in the eastern Mediterranean region

“…To improve the selection, new techniques including chorological criteria have also been implemented (Dunn et al, 1999;Pärtel et al, 2005).…”

Is the endangered flora of the Iberian southeast adequately protected? Gaps in the Network of Protected Natural Areas of Andalusia (RENPA): the case of the province of Almería

“…The index of responsibility for preservation considers whether or not a species grows exclusively in an area which is the responsibility of one single official agency at the highest level (Dunn et al, 1999). This index, partly inspired by the methods suggested by Jiménez-Alfaro et al (2007), is the combination of four basic criteria related to preservation.…”

“…By means of a number of conservationist criteria based on the scientific information about the distribution, ecology and the endangered level of the species under study, we obtained a more coherent ranking of the species as far as priority conservation is concerned (Pärtel et al, 2005). These criteria have been integrated into two indexes: on the one hand importance for preservation, which is based on the endangered level of the taxa under study; on the other, responsibility for preservation (Dunn et al, 1999). This latter refers to the ethical and political duties of the authorities in relation to the most important genetic resources in the territory under their administration (Jiménez-Alfaro et al, 2007).…”