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Evaluating Trade-Offs between Target Persistence Levels and Numbers of Species Conserved

2015; Wiley; Volume: 9; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/conl.12179

1755-263X

Martina M. I. Di Fonzo, Hugh P. Possingham, William J. M. Probert, Joseph Bennett, Liana N. Joseph, Ayesha Tulloch, Shaun M. O'Connor, Jodie P. Densem, Richard F. Maloney,

Forest Management and Policy

A focus of conservation planning is to maximize the probability of species persistence, but this may reduce the number of species that can be secured with a limited budget. Using a data set of 700 New Zealand species, we examine the trade-off between providing a high level of persistence for some species and a lower level of persistence for more species. We find that the target persistence level that delivers the highest conservation outcome is a function of the annual budget, such that lower budgets have lower optimal targets. However, it is never optimal to manage species below a 75% probability of persistence. We introduce a prioritization approach that maximizes biodiversity gains based on a flexible persistence target, and demonstrate how strategies with fixed high-persistence targets can be inefficient. We also illustrate the risks in spreading conservation resources too thinly by undertaking low levels of management on more species.