Benefits of integrating complementarity into priority threat management

• Published in: Conservation biology 2015-04, Vol.29 (2), p.525-536
• Main Authors: Chadés, Iadine , Nicol, Sam , van Leeuwen, Stephen , Walters, Belinda , Firn, Jennifer , Reeson, Andrew , Martin, Tara G. , Carwardine, Josie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Australia; Biodiversity; conservación; conservation; Conservation biology; Conservation of Natural Resources - economics; Conservation of Natural Resources - methods; Contributed Papers; Cost-Benefit Analysis; cost-effectiveness; Decision analysis; multiobjective optimization; optimización multi-objetivo; Optimization; Pareto; Pilbara; rentabilidad; Western Australia
• ISSN: 0888-8892; 1523-1739
• DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12413

Conservation decision tools based on cost-effectiveness analysis are used to assess threat management strategies for improving species persistence. These approaches rank alternative strategies by their benefit to cost ratio but may fail to identify the optimal sets of strategies to implement under limited budgets because they do not account for redundancies. We devised a multiobjective optimization approach in which the complementarity principle is applied to identify the sets of threat management strategies that protect the most species for any budget. We used our approach to prioritize threat management strategies for 53 species of conservation concern in the Pilbara, Australia. We followed a structured elicitation approach to collect information on the benefits and costs of implementing 17 different conservation strategies during a 3-day workshop with 49 stakeholders and experts in the biodiversity, conservation, and management of the Pilbara. We compared the performance of our complementarity priority threat management approach with a current cost-effectiveness ranking approach. A complementary set of 3 strategies: domestic herbivore management, fire management and research, and sanctuaries provided all species with >50% chance of persistence for $4.7 million/year over 20 years. Achieving the same result cost almost twice as much ($9.71 million/year) when strategies were selected by their cost-effectiveness ranks alone. Our results show that complementarity of management benefits has the potential to double the impact of priority threat management approaches. Las herramientas de decisión de conservación basadas en los análisis de rentabilidad se usan para evaluar las estrategias de manejo de amenazas para mejorar la persistencia de las especies. Estos métodos clasifican a las estrategias alternativas por su beneficio al índice de costos pero pueden fallar en la identificación el conjunto óptimo de estrategias a implementar bajo un presupuesto limitado ya que no consideran las redundancias. Diseñamos una estrategia de optimización multi-objetivo en la que el principio de complementariedad es aplicado para identificar los conjuntos de estrategias de manejo de amenazas que protegen al mayor número de especies bajo cualquier presupuesto. Usamos nuestra estrategia para priorizar estrategias de manejo de amenazas para 53 especies de interés de conservación en el Pilbara, Australia. Seguimos una estrategia de obtención estructurada para colectar información s