The New South Wales Priorities Action Statement and opportunities for maximizing return on investment for conservation

Joseph, Liana N.; Watson, James; Possingham, Hugh P.

doi:10.1111/j.1442-8903.2009.00466.x

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…This has great appeal in conservation biology, where managers are faced with multiple options, limited budgets, and often high consequences of failure, like species extinction (Tear et al 2005). Decision theory provides conservation managers with a rational, transparent, and efficient means of justifying their management decisions (Joseph et al 2009). In light of this, decision theory is becoming more common in the conservationbiology literature, and is being used to answer a broad range of questions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Should metapopulation restoration strategies increase patch area or number of patches?

Nicol

Possingham

2010

Ecological Applications

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Managers of species that exist as metapopulations are faced with many decisions. In this paper we use a decision-theory framework to examine a fundamental management question: Should we focus on decreasing the local extinction probability of subpopulations by increasing the size of their patch, or should metapopulation viability be improved by constructing more patches? Using a spatially implicit stochastic metapopulation model and stochastic dynamic programming (SDP), we found the optimal solution to this problem for both the finite- and infinite-time horizon cases. We showed that the SDP solutions outperform a range of heuristic management strategies. The optimal strategy for a given parameter set depends heavily on metapopulation parameters, and it is difficult to make generalizations about the optimal restoration strategy a priori. Although heuristic strategies perform well in some cases, it is not possible to judge their performance until the SDP solution has been computed, and for this reason we advocate the use of SDP as a management tool in restoration. We demonstrate the use of SDP by deriving an optimal management strategy for a population of the Mount Lofty Ranges Southern Emu-wren (Stipiturus malachurus intermedius).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Should metapopulation restoration strategies increase patch area or number of patches?

Nicol

Possingham

2010

Ecological Applications

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“…Efforts to prioritize conservation actions on the basis of cost and effectiveness are in use in several jurisdictions. While these methods are expected to increase efficiency (e.g., (Gerber, 2016), and are widely recognized as crucial for success of endangered species programs (e.g., (Evans et al, 2016), it remains unclear whether these efforts in their current form will yield measurable improvements in performance at recovering at-risk species (e.g., (Bennett et al, 2014;Gerber & Raik, 2018;Joseph et al, 2009) Many of the approaches to date have relied on expert judgement rather than empirical data; the best or only available option in many circumstances. While structured protocols for expert elicitation can reduce bias (Hemming et al, 2018), experts' judgements can still be biased by a number of factors, and can result in overconfidence in estimates that are inaccurate (Gregory et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trimming the hedges in a hurricane: Endangered Species lack research on the outcomes of conservation action

Binley,

Haddaway,

Buxton

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Given widespread biodiversity declines, there is an urgent need to ensure that conservation interventions are working. Yet, evidence regarding the effectiveness of conservation actions is often lacking. Using a case study of 208 terrestrial species listed as Endangered in Canada, we conducted a literature review to collate the evidence base on conservation actions to: 1) explore the outcomes of actions documented for each species; and 2) identify knowledge gaps. Action-oriented research constituted only 2% of all literature across target species, and for 56% of species we found no literature investigating outcomes of conservation actions. Protected areas, habitat creation, artificial shelter, and alternative farming practices were broadly beneficial for most species for which these actions were assessed. Habitat restoration actions were most frequently studied, but almost 38% of these actions were harmful, ineffective, or demonstrated mixed results. The effectiveness of prescribed burns, alternative timber harvesting approaches and vegetation control was examined for the greatest number of species, yet 17-30% of these actions demonstrated negative effects. Our synthesis yielded a dataset of conservation evidence that can be implemented to aid in recovery planning for species at risk, and highlighted alarming gaps in the conservation literature that merit further investigation.

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“…Even when an ecological system is well understood and recovery is predicted to be successful, implementation is subject to several social and economic caveats (e.g., Environment Canada, 2014). As a result, considerable thought has been directed at accounting for the probability of success in the cost of conservation action (Bottrill et al, 2009; Joseph et al, 2009; Naidoo et al, 2006; Schneider et al, 2010). When the costs of conservation are too high to be effectively distributed across the range of a species, prioritizing recovery efforts is necessary.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prioritizing populations based on recovery potential

McLellan¹,

Dickie²,

Boutin

et al. 2023

Conservat Sci and Prac

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For wide‐ranging species, it is often too expensive or politically challenging to effectively implement conservation action across their range. In these cases, conservation actions may be vigorously applied where the situation appears most dire, but inadvertently at the expense of where success is more probable. Consequently, it is prudent to use a prioritization approach that highlights areas of probable success. Using Southern Mountain Caribou as a target species, we develop a simple algorithm that integrates scaled habitat quality measures and population characteristics known to affect the demographics of caribou and weights them according to their relative importance as defined by expert opinion. The algorithm ranks subpopulations by their relative conservation status and, as a result, how likely they are to respond to additional conservation efforts and contribute to long‐term species persistence. Sensitivity analyses are then used to measure the implications of variance among key criteria and the potential variance in expert weighting. The transparent method quickly allows for real, or potential changes in criteria values, scaling, or their relative weighting, thus providing a baseline metric for conservation discussion, subpopulation comparisons, and adaptive management action. A web‐based application of the algorithm can be used directly or adapted for other species. This transparent framework can be used by conservation scientists and managers for prioritizing populations for receiving recovery actions to maximize long‐term conservation impact.

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The New South Wales Priorities Action Statement and opportunities for maximizing return on investment for conservation

Cited by 9 publications

References 20 publications

Should metapopulation restoration strategies increase patch area or number of patches?

Should metapopulation restoration strategies increase patch area or number of patches?

Trimming the hedges in a hurricane: Endangered Species lack research on the outcomes of conservation action

Prioritizing populations based on recovery potential

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